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Is it possible for modern civilization to be severely devastated by some plague or disease?
Plagues and disease have, or course, devastated civilizations of the past like Europe a few times, and the new world obviously. So this is not fantasy or science fiction.
And I am not talking about a zombie virus or like the Strain. I am just talking about a regular virus, or disease that just kills you.
With our modern medicine, can we pretty much stop anything from spreading around too badly? We have diseases like heart and cancer that kill off lots of people, but I am talking about an apocalyptic or almost apocalyptic number of casualties.
I guess more along the lines of The Last Ship tv series.
Yes, it is still possible. A widespread outbreak of something like Ebola could overwhelm the healthcare system and decimate huge populations. There likelihood is low but the possibility exists.
with the speed these days a person can get from one side of the world to another then yes this is quite possible. we had a british television drama series called "Survivors", this was the script for the storyline.
The reason for a flu shot every year is because the flu virus keeps changing. The serum that they make for that year's virus is just a guess for that year. Several years they guessed wrong. All flus are airborne and when they survey a cross section of the public by drawing random blood samples and look for flu antibodies they find that more then 90% of the public have been infected. Foe some it's a death sentence, for others it is just a minor illness.
Ebola, so far has been aerosol transmitted. There are 4 discovered strains of Ebola. As long as Ebola stays only aerosol transmitted it will be containable. If it becomes airborne there will be no ways to stop it and it will kill 50%-70% of the infected and that could be 90% of the population. Even the people that have survived have had long term physical maladies. In a report from just a month ago has found that some of the survivors still have active Ebola virus in them years later.
A black swan virus similar to the Ebola virus and airborne could wipe out the human race before any lab could even figure out what is killing people.
So yes, we could still be devastated by a disease.
viruses cannot live for long outside the human body, about 24 hours I think, the one exception is Ebola I believe, they need a warm blooded host, remove yourself from the multitudes and go into self imposed isolation until it has run its course.
Is it possible for modern civilization to be severely devastated by some plague or disease?
No, this is 2015, not 1915 or 1815.
Communications matters.
Even in the case of a designer virus that had a lengthy incubation period of several weeks to maximize the spread, it wouldn't affect more than 20% of the population.
viruses cannot live for long outside the human body, about 24 hours I think, the one exception is Ebola I believe, they need a warm blooded host, remove yourself from the multitudes and go into self imposed isolation until it has run its course.
You forgot about anthrax, it lives in dirt for years.
Even in the case of a designer virus that had a lengthy incubation period of several weeks to maximize the spread, it wouldn't affect more than 20% of the population.
If this is true, please explain the flu virus? Infects more then 90% of the population and we can't stop it. Any airborne virus will cross the country in days/weeks long before the CDC can identify it.
Is it possible for modern civilization to be severely devastated by some plague or disease?
I know that this isn't what you meant, but let's put this into perspective:
Far more people die of drug use and overdosing than ever die from the flu, every year.
Far more people die of gunshot wounds than ever die from the flu, every year.
Far more people die of auto and motorcycle accidents than ever die from the flu, every year.
and,
Far more people die of the flu than ever get within 1,000 miles of someone with ebola, every year.
I know that this isn't what you meant, but let's put this into perspective:
Far more people die of drug use and overdosing than ever die from the flu, every year. Far more people die of gunshot wounds than ever die from the flu, every year. Far more people die of auto and motorcycle accidents than ever die from the flu, every year.
Not every year. More people died from the Spanish flu than were killed in World War I, fifty to one hundred million. That was five to ten percent of the world's population at the time.
Businesses and schools were closed; many industries were crippled. My parents told me about classmates and teachers who died. However, the effects of the pandemic were short-lived. We need a minimum of a fifty percent death rate of the entire population to effect any real change. Eighty to ninety percent would be necessary to guarantee it.
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