Have there been warning signs of a coming pandemic?

 

Did this pandemic just come out of the blue? Were there warning signs? Most definitely!

 

The 1918 flu pandemic - the big one

Let’s start from the really big one in 1918 – 1920 – Spanish flu. Killed between 50 and 100 million people. People were dying in such high numbers that they literally stopped counting! This virus started off in a pig farm and then spread from pigs to man.There is some academic debate on if the virus first came from a bird and spread to the pig and then to the farmer, or just from the pig to the farmer. In any case the pig is the pig in the story. This farmer (patient zero) went off to join the army as the USA joined the war very late in the war. The virus then spear like wildfire through the army camps and on teh troop ships bring the soldiers across from the USA to France. There are many lessons which can be learned from the 1918 pandemic and when you look at the mistakes which were then made during that serious pandemic, it is shocking to see that people are making exactly the same mistakes. 

 

Breeding ground for the next pandemic

Asian flu was another clear warning. This outbreak was caused by influenza virus coming from birds and spread to humans in 1957 – 1958. This virus killed 116 000 people in the USA and about 1.1 million people worldwide. A virus spreading from farmed birds to man.

Thanks to HIV we can no longer hear him!

 

 AIDS or HIV, started in 1981 and is still very much ongoing, particularly in Southern Africa. This started off from people eating the meat of chimpanzees and great apes in Africa. Once the virus spread from the great apes into humans, it started spreading easily amount people. This virus is spread by direct, close sexual contact and there is no evidence of airborne transmission. There are now some 40 million people infected with this virus around the world with about 65% of these being in sub Saharan  Africa. The number of people that have died is estimated to be around 35 million. The actual numbers  of people dying from HIV in South Africa is very much under reported.  Cause of death is often recorded as lung infections or yeast infections.  Just one more deadly disease because people have to eat meat.

Chimp meat

 In February 2003, we had the first taste of a coronavirus when SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus) which broke out in China and was traced to a wet food market where wild animals are kept and slaughtered for food. In this case the virus came from a civet cat. The story sounds very similar to teh Covid-19 story! Only 774 people died in this pandemic, but this was a 62% mortality rate! The only thing that saved mankind that time round was the fact that the people who had the virus were only infectious once they showed clinical signs. So it was possible to control the disease through isolation, taking temperature, and contact tracing. This pandemic went a long way in preparing us for the coming storm - but people still did not stop the slaughter of wild animals in China.

In a wet market in China. They get the meat - we get the virus!

 

 In 2009 – 2010 another influenza virus popped up. This was the Mexican swine flu and this pandemic started in (you guested it) farmed pigs. This was the same virus which caused the 1918 pandemic (Influenza virus H1N1). This virus, for some unknown reason, was not as deadly as the 1918 version and only killed around 575 000 people. It is very sad when we talk about "only" killing over 500 000 people! 

African swine fever virus

 

Who can forget about Ebola virus? Before the major outbreaks in 2014, scientists where very worried about Ebola virus, because up to that point, the virus had a 99% mortality rate. Basically you get it, you die! This virus spreads from bats to humans when humans eat the bats. Yet again, another pandemic as a result of people eating bats! There was a significant outbreak of Ebola in 2014 – 2016 where some 11 325 people died. Again fortunately for mankind, this virus could also only spread when an infected person was showing clinical signs, so isolation and control was possible. It is almost like someone is trying to tell mankind something - stop eating animals! Get ready for the next major pandemic!

Ebola virus

 

In September 2012, we had the next taste of a coronavirus, this time spreading from camels to man. The mortality rate of this virus was around 40% in people who had become infected. This virus was called MERS or Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. The virus also did not spread easily from human to human. 

Camels and MERS

 

Do you notice anything that all of these pandemics have in common? How many of these deadly pandemics do you see were caused by people eating fruit and vegetables? All of the serious deadly human pandemics have been caused by man’s demand for meat and the mistreatment of animals. The massive factory farms of beef, pigs an poultry are the ideal breeding ground for the next deadly pandemic which will most probably be way more serious than the current Covid-19 pandemic! 

It is time to stop eating meat, or at the very least cut back on your meat consumption, not only for your own health, but for the health and survival of the plant!