Are We Due for a Pandemic Flu? Here’s How to Prepare Just in Case
Imagine the catastrophic numbers in today’s time if a similar flu hit – and how quickly it would spread from the ease in transportation modern society allows.
While you can rest easy right now knowing a global pandemic is not currently a threat, it is just a matter of time before the next one arrives.
Although modern medicine has a lot more flu-fighting tricks in its arsenal than it did several decades ago, the risk of a pandemic flu killing many is still very real.
The growing population, ease in global travel, civil conflict, a marked decrease in medical facilities in outbreak regions, and a decrease in CDC resources could all create a perfect storm for an epidemic to rapidly get out of control and become a pandemic.
In The Big One Is Coming, and It’s Going to Be a Flu Pandemic, Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote that when a highly lethal flu pandemic comes, it will affect everyone alive today:
Pandemic flu is apolitical and does not discriminate between rich and poor. Geographical boundaries are meaningless, and it can circle the globe within hours.
Dr. Gupta goes on to explain that when most people hear “flu”, they think of seasonal flu, but pandemic flu is “a different animal, and you should understand the difference.”
Panˈdemik/: pan means “all”; demic (or demographic) means “people.” It is well-named, because pandemic flu spreads easily throughout the world. Unlike seasonal flu, pandemics occur when a completely new or novel virus emerges. This sort of virus can emerge directly from animal reservoirs or be the result of a dramatic series of mutations — so-called reassortment events — in previously circulating viruses.
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