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At Last, Biology Gets a Turn

On the threat of Plague.
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Great advances have been made in the fields of chemical, physical and biological sciences, but it is questionable whether they are enough to protect us against one of the most elemental and visceral threats. Plague.

Lack of social cohesion has lead to poorer social care, a major preventative measure in the battle against infection. Overpopulation has lead to mass overcrowding, poor living conditions and has increased the ease by which disease can be spread from person to person. The combined forces of malnutrition and stress have weakened the immune system of the average man. Infectious disease has become a major killer, even in the developed countries, especially since antibiotic resistance has been a growing problem. A problem to which there has been no solution.

The new pandemic hasn’t arisen. Yet. Nobody can predict what it will be, but most epidemiologists agree that it will be a virus. Some point to stabilised strains of Ebola that are emerging in the jungle heart of Africa, others suggest that it might be retroviruses such as HIV. A theory that is gaining popularity is that it’ll end up being a strain of flu-Spanish flu ended up killing off more people than WW1, after all. Currently, we’re just waiting for the whatever it is to make the evolutionary hop-skip-and-jump needed to kill us all.

We’ll make preparations for it, that’s for sure. Perhaps we’ll make statistical studies, stockpile anti-flu vaccines that don’t work and make plans for a quarantine. Still, we’re all probably going to be killed by something that isn’t even alive.

Ironic, no?

Apr 23


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  • Martijn
    May 13
    quite a depressed view on human development in the future I think. Over population, poor living conditions, malnutrion, stress and antibiotic resistance are def. worldwide issues which need to be addressed to and which do need our utmost attention. Besides this, the swine-flu virus which has caused a lot of media-attention around the world. But fortunately it appears until now to be not so deathly as some were afraid of initially. But do you really think, we all will be killed in the end by a mutated virus or something alike? I do think, that in the future we will face difficulties which go now beyond out imagination or capabilities. It might even be possible that these threats (in the forms of deathly visuses as we discuss here) have a devastating effect on a large part of the human population, however I also do believe in the capability of humans to deal with those threats.
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