The disturbing nature of this virus was really brought home to me as I was reading Bill Bryon's book
A Short History of Nearly Everything in which he describes the disturbing and frightening reality of the Swine Flu virus over pages 386-389:
I didn't realise that the 1918 flu epidemic was Swine Flu. and Bryson provides some astonishing facts including:
80% of American World War 1 forces casualties were the result of Swine Flu, and 21 million people died in 4 months world wide.
The most frightening aspect of the virus however relates directly to the 'phase' of its development we are in at the moment, yes that means Summer 2009. Bryson writes "Swine flu arose as a normal, non-lethal flu in the Spring of 1918, but somehow, over the following months, non-one knows how or where, it mutated into something more severe"
He goes on to describe a series of stomach churning experiments conducted on convicts in a race to create a vaccine. Their participation was based on the promise that if they survived exposure to the virus ranging from being coughed in the face, to ingesting 'samples' from patients that had died from the virus they would be pardoned!
The most difficult and worrying to explain he says was "how it managed to lie low for several months before erupting so explosively at more or less the same time all over. Even more mysterious is that it was most devastating to people in the prime of life"
He concludes by saying "The greatest mystery of all is why the 1918 flu was so ferociously deadly when most flus are not. We still have no idea"
Swine Flu Latest:
9th June 2009 Australia flu could tip pandemic
10th June 40 New Swine Flu Cases in the UK
11th June 2009 WHO 'declares swine flu pandemic'
12th June UK Swine Flu cases pass 900 Mark
14th June 2009 UK First Swine Flu Death - First Outside Americas
27th June 2009 Swine Flu At Glastonbury
28th June 2009 Second UK Swine Flu Death
29th June 3rd UK swine flu death
2nd July 2009 100,000 a day in UK expected
3rd July 2009 Death in London
6th July 2009 Child 9 years dies in London
10th July 2009 1st death of healthy person
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