Academic

WHAT HAPPENS if the Swine Flu goes away? On the other hand, a reader says don?t get cocky: ?

By Glenn Reynolds

WHAT HAPPENS if the Swine Flu goes away?

On the other hand, a reader says don’t get cocky:

Definitely just the squall before the flu hurricane this Fall. “In each of the four major pandemics since 1889, a spring wave of relatively mild illness was followed by a second wave, a few months later, of a much more virulent disease. This was true in 1889, 1957, 1968 and in the catastrophic flu outbreak of 1918, which sickened an estimated third of the world’s population and killed, conservatively, 50 million people.”

All the more reason for quick vaccine work, and more effort to top up antiviral supplies and learn from what went right, and wrong, this time. And, of course, a reason for general preparedness.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 05, 2009 (boomark / email).