Earl Blumenauer: “the deadliest plague in human history was the influenza pandemic of 1918 which killed up to 100 million people around…”

“the deadliest plague in human history was the influenza pandemic of 1918 which killed up to 100 million people around the world. While annual flu strains tend to spare young healthy adults, every few decades a strain arises that can kill people in the prime of life. In 1918, more than a quarter of all Americans fell ill. What started for millions around the globe as a runny nose and a sore throat developed into a gruesome, deadly virus. No war, no plague, no famine ever killed so many. This year, brilliant medical detective work pieced together the genetic makeup of the 1918 virus. The origin was found to be avian influenza, the so-called bird flu. The new mutant strain of bird flu spreading across Europe and Asia may turn out to be even deadlier than the 1918 virus. As we scramble to assemble plans and get vaccine, more birds infected and more human contact means more opportunity for the virus to mutate, perhaps triggering this next human pandemic. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization consider another pandemic inevitable, whether triggered by this bird flu virus or the next. The current proposed spending plan does finally address some measures to mediate the impact of future pandemics, but it overlooks the critical policy initiatives that could directly impact the threat at its source. For example, avian influenza is not limited to Asia or Europe.…”