Reply to: Is Huwai the least of our problems?

[DoctorStrangelove]

yes, which as I say, we don't need to fear bombs etc, the bugs are more likely to get us first.

IIRC there's a sentence in "Earth Abides" to the effect that civilisation didn't end with a bang but with a whimper.

I didn't.

It's a 1925 poem by T. S. Eliot "The Hollow Men":

The Hollow Men - Wikipedia

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Rather before we invented the neutron in fact.

http://bamfordsworld.weebly.com/uplo...rth_abides.pdf

[JohntheBike]

The last epidemic of plague in England? Suffolk 1906-1918.

Spanish flu made it look like an amateur.

yes, which as I say, we don't need to fear bombs etc, the bugs are more likely to get us first.

[DoctorStrangelove]

The last epidemic of plague in England? Suffolk 1906-1918.

Spanish flu made it look like an amateur.

[JohntheBike]

Or just good quarantine, see Eyam. They have it properly sorted now with one of those AV museums.

yes, Eyam successfully contained it by quarantining the villagers.

[NigelJK]

Or just good quarantine, see Eyam. They have it properly sorted now with one of those AV museums.

[JohntheBike]

Yeah course they are. Nothing to do with modern medicine at all.

Looking at how today's men handle a dose of the cold I'd conclude quite the opposite.

"Yeah course they are. Nothing to do with modern medicine at all"

the last serious outbreak occurred some time ago and well before antibiotics were discovered. So those that survived that outbreak must have had some resistance to it, just like those prostitutes in Africa who seem to be immune to Aids and who are now being researched.

[JohntheBike]

Eyam is an interesting visit should you get the chance. Beware deliveries from London

yes, especially fabrics. I did visit in 1969, but don't remember anything of it now.

[xoggoth]

All these threatened apocalypses are so boring compared to the movies, invasions of giant monsters or zombies look much more exciting.

[NigelJK]

Eyam is an interesting visit should you get the chance. Beware deliveries from London

[BrilloPad]

With over 7 billion to infect, sommat will come along sooner or later.

Hence the twitchiness over ebola, marberg, green monkey disease and lassa fever.

New Ebola outbreak in DRC is 'truly frightening', says Wellcome Trust director - BBC News

Sadly this will not be enough to save the world from climate change. It needs ebola to go global and kill off 90% of people. Especially those house hogging elderly who are stopping the young from getting on the property ladder.

I do hope I am in the 90% of those to die.

[Zigenare]

Oh, I'm with you on the pandemic.

That Val McDermid radio drama is still with me...

Well, you've got to die of something.

Zig - In "Bringing a cheery note to your day!" mode.

[cojak]

Oh, I'm with you on the pandemic.

That Val McDermid radio drama is still with me...

[ladymuck]

: My current read:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Death.../dp/0750932023

And if the message in that is too uplifting then try:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Abide...s=books&sr=1-1

The black death one is 99p on Kindle, I have purchased!

[DoctorStrangelove]

With over 7 billion to infect, sommat will come along sooner or later.

Hence the twitchiness over ebola, marberg, green monkey disease and lassa fever.

It's being so cheerful that keeps me going.

That and watching "Survivors"* or "Jeremiah".

*The proper Terry Nation series with Brian Blessed not the inferior more recent version.

[northernladuk]

It's interesting to note that not everyone succumbed to the black death. The inhabitants of Eyam in Derbyshire managed to contain an outbreak there and the Emperor Justinian survived an infection and recovered. Also when the outbreak in Marseille was investigated, it was noticed that contemporary paintings often showed that livery people were involved in handling the dead. Further investigation concluded that the smell of dubbin had repelled the fleas that carried the plague. We are all now aware of the 1919 flu pandemic which killed more than died in WW1. There have apparently been three periods in human history when our species has been near to extinction but we survived. So I guess we could conclude that today's population is pretty robust!

Yeah course they are. Nothing to do with modern medicine at all.

Looking at how today's men handle a dose of the cold I'd conclude quite the opposite.