Memory Monday: Origin of Spanish Flu and Third Week of April 1918
by meep
Here is an interesting lecture from Michael Worobey, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, given in 2014.
Description of the video:
The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 was the most intense outbreak of disease in human history. It killed upwards of 50 million people (most in a six-week period) casting a long shadow of fear and mystery: nearly a century later, scientists have been unable to explain why, unlike all other influenza outbreaks, it killed young adults in huge numbers. I will describe how analyses of large numbers of influenza virus genomes are revealing the pathway traveled by the genes of this virus before it exploded in 1918. What emerges is a surprising tale with many players and plot lines, in which echoes of prior pandemics, imprinted in the immune responses of those alive in 1918, set the stage for the catastrophe. I will also discuss how resolving the mysteries of 1918 could help to prevent future pandemics and to control seasonal influenza, which quietly kills millions more every decade.
The lecture is about an hour. Check it out! Direct link to the video.
NEWSPAPER CLIPS, NO COMMENTARY
Okay, guys. I’m tired. I went to Albany yesterday… not to lobby (the government buildings were empty), but to take my kids to a They Might Be Giants concert. Here are a few pics I took in Albany. Btw, I recommend City Beer Hall. Bon and I had their signature burger, Mo had duck, and they specially made a grilled cheese sandwich for D. Also, I had a beer flight — they’ve got a nice selection on draft.
I have more I can say about Albany, but let’s go to the newspaper clips:
One comment: the retailers had no shame in co-opting war terminology to sell their wares.
For all people talk about modern crassness in advertisement… I bet you could find similar examples from the ruins of Pompeii. Ask Terry Pratchett about the Cut-their-own-throats peddlers….
