A growing number of Swedish doctors and scientists are raising alarm over the Swedish government's approach to COVID-19. Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden has adopted a relatively relaxed strategy, seemingly assuming that ...
Mar 30, 2020
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The global death toll from COVID-19, which is set to pass five million, is already far worse than most other viral epidemics of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Nov 1, 2021
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With 1.4 million confirmed cases and 81,000 deaths worldwide as of this writing, the coronavirus pandemic has become a global tragedy unlike any in our lifetimes. But, as historians remind us, this is neither our first nor ...
Apr 10, 2020
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A phenomenon known as a "cytokine storm"—a rapid overreaction of the immune system—is one of the most worrying features of COVID-19.
Apr 7, 2020
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The world is unprepared for a global pandemic that could wipe out 80 million people in less than 36 hours along with 5% of the global GDP, a new report from the World Health Organization says.
Sep 19, 2019
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Researchers at McMaster University have found that children who receive years of season-specific flu vaccines develop antibodies that also provide broader protection against new strains, including those capable of causing ...
Feb 3, 2022
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Pandemic: It's a scary word.
Mar 18, 2020
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With over 170,000 COVID-19 deaths to date, and 1,000 more each day, America's life expectancy may appear to be plummeting. But in estimating the magnitude of the pandemic, University of California, Berkeley, demographers ...
Aug 25, 2020
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A US-based Japanese scientist said Wednesday he has succeeded in engineering a version of the so-called swine flu virus that would be able to evade the human immune system.
Jul 2, 2014
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Large events are cancelled, restaurants and non-essential businesses are closed, and in many states, residents have been asked to shelter in place, all to limit the spread and impact of the COVID-19 virus. But are strict ...
Mar 27, 2020
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The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus. Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The flu pandemic has also been implicated in the sudden outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.
The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 50 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe. An estimated 500 million people, one third of the world's population (approximately 1.6 billion at the time), became infected.
Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths.
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