Is a Flu Pandemic Imminent?-- Part 6: "How Bad Flu Can Be"

This newspaper article is from 2018.

Medical science  has continued to   improve its response to influenza.

Most developed nations are sitting on stockpiles of antivirals that work against flu, and new antiviral drugs are in the research pipeline according to Dr. Nicole Bouvier.  "If the pandemic doesn't happen for another five years, we'll have a whole other set of drugs that work in a different way against flu."

Other research has focused on new technologies that can cut vaccine development time down from six months to two months,  she added.  "We'll be able to churn out vaccine much more quickly than we were in the last pandemic in 2009."

Overall, Bouvier believes health officials are better prepared today because the 1918 influenza occurred.

"Having gone through it once, having seen how bad it could be, has made people in the public health and governmental sphere aware of how bad flu can be," she said.  "That may be the biggest lesson we have learned, to not underestimate how bad flu can be."

Well, I Guess a Flu Epidemic Was Imminent Two Years Ago.   --RoadDog

Is a Flu Pandemic Imminent?-- Part 5: Get Those Flu Shots

This is taken from a newspaper article written two years ago.

The history of the 1918 pandemic shows that humans do have one very big advantage in responding to a dangerous new flu strain, Dr. Greg Poland said.  And, that is the modern rite of annual flu vaccination.

In 1918, the flu was particularly deadly to people in their 20s and 30s, and epidemiologists theorize that's because they hadn't previously come into contact with similar influenza viruses.

"Those who have received immunizations in the past do, on average, better than those who haven't," Poland said.  "They build up some immunologic imprinting and memory that serves to help insure they survive."

In other words, the flu shots you've gotten in the past will increase your chances of survival, even if you come down with a nastier strain of flu.

--RoadDog

Is a Flu Pandemic Imminent?-- Part 4: We Had a Dry-Run of Coronavirus in 2018

If such a deadly strain rises, the response to this year's severe flu season (2018) has revealed that health care professionals may be ill-equipped to respond to it, Dr. Greg Poland  argued.

He pointed to recent reports of overrun hospitals setting up makeshift facilities, spot shortages of antiviral medications and a nationwide shortage of IV bags caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.  

On top of that, there are other concerns that would only arise in the event of a 1918-like influenza, Poland added.  He doubted that there would be enough ventilators to respond to such a scenario and pointed to evidence that shows many health care workers would not go to work in the face of a virus that lethal.

"Much of the antibiotic manufacturer, virtually all the chemicals required for that come outside the U.S., and it's all done in a just-in-time inventory method," Poland said.  "Make the people who run the ships and airplanes sick -- now what?"

This Guy Sure Knew What he Was Talking About.  Maybe We Could get Him to Do the Weather Now.