“China Virus” throwback
I haven’t read much about the 1957 “Asian Flu” pandemic but a follower directed me to this 1 October BBC story from that year and, wow, does the plot sound familiar!
In the story (copied/pasted below) we have:
- a strain of something “believed to have originated” in China in February 1957 before it began “sweeping around the world.”
- the strain “reaching” the UK in July 1957.
- a vaccine being launched quickly, just in time for “flu season.”
- a vaccine that is in limited supply and can’t be given to everyone right away.
- a vaccine that requires two injections for the “fullest protection.”
- acknowledgment that pneumonia is the real issue.
- a claim about influenza’s power to kii bring its ability to mutate rapidly (which “requires” new vaccines).
- a claim (admission?) that it is “rare” for an epidemic to “be transmitted” across borders and become a pandemic.
Frankly, I can’t believe the 2020 version of this movie stuck so closely to the 1950s version. (The lab leak twist is a “fun” one, I suppose…)
British public gets ‘Asian Flu’ vaccine
A vaccine against the strain of influenza currently sweeping around the world has been made available to the British public.
The so-called Asian Flu pandemic has already killed thousands of people around the globe – many of them in the United States.
The virus is believed to have originated in North China in February before spreading worldwide.
It reached the UK three months ago.
The vaccine, which is being produced at the Wright-Fleming Institute of Microbiology in west London, will be distributed free on the National Health Service.
Medical priority
To give the fullest protection against the flu strain two injections are needed at an interval of not less than three weeks.
Tens of thousands of units of the vaccine have been produced during the last two months, however, there is still not enough at present for everyone to be vaccinated.
Doctors, nurses and other medical staff are being given priority.
Yesterday the Registrar-General’s latest bulletin showed the influenza mortality rate rose sharply last week with 121 deaths registered in England and Wales compared with 47 the previous week.
The latest deaths brought the total to 472 since the beginning of the year.
But that figure is well down on the 1,073 influenza deaths registered in the same period last year.
However, what is causing the concern is the rate at which the deaths due to Asian Flu are increasing.
The elderly and young children and those with heart or lung disease, are influenza’s chief victims with many dying of secondary problems, such as bronchial pneumonia.
The killing power of influenza comes from the ability of the virus to mutate easily and rapidly meaning a new vaccine must be produced to deal with each strain.
But it is rare for an epidemic to be transmitted beyond national boundaries and become a pandemic – the last was the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918-1920.
The punchline is featured in a contemporary “In Context” box which says deaths initially fell after the vaccine was made available and then rose again, and there were three times as many influenza deaths by December 1957 as in the corresponding period in 1956.
Implication: “the virus” was simply too powerful!!!
Is it me, or have we heard this before?
It seems like governments have recycled the pandemic ruse many times since the “Russian flu” event. The reasons for doing so may vary but vaccines appear to be big part of the problem — and a solution in need of an ongoing, manmade problem — NOT the solution to a problem nature has created.
Related video clip: https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/920555682312336/?mibextid=w8EBqM
Leave a Reply