Deadly Pandemics Like Covid

You're right Davidhs, the real problem is overpopulation! While I'm not suggesting another WW, some could argue that they were natures way particularly with males who, too many in nature, are surplus to requirements!

Growstuff
10% of 66million is 6.6m
1%. of. 66million is 660,000
0.1% of 66million is 66,000

Call it 1 in 1000 it’s easier to understand but is a far cry from the millions predicted at the start.

Franbern and Davidhs good posts.??

“Silly people getting excited”
Those that blame a pandemic on exploiting the planet.

Pandemics occur at random that applies to wild and domestic animals and plants as well we do our best to use science to control them, it has nothing whatever to do with mining minerals or drilling for oil.
Fools with agendas believe that, the reality is to support the global population we have to exploit resources, the real problem is overpopulation, nobody has the courage to do anything about that.

If pandemics were just a problem of modern day society then it might be something to do with modern day living.

However, the black death of the middle ages, far worse than anything we are experiencing now - killed more the half of all the population of that time. Way, way before any sort of modern living,.

The 'sweating Sickness' of the 16th century, killed untold numbers, - woke in the morning healthy, felt ill by lunchtime and dead by nightfall. all ages and all social groups.

The biblical plagues, (based on historical events),, the so-called Spanish flu of 1917-1920 (originating in USA), killed millions world wide.

Others, since then, Asian flu (so called) Hong Kong flu, Ebola, Sars, etc. etc.

So many of these are now controlled and treatable by modern science. Perhaps nature just feels, every so often that a cull is needed of Homo sapiens!!!

Really do not think we can blame the current one on modern living.

0.1% of the UK population is about 666,000 people.

It's not influenza, Davidhs as has been explained several times before on threads.
silly people getting excited
I trust that none of you and yours or anyone you know has been affected, or has died from this virus.

This virus could have been stopped in its tracks at source if people had acted quickly enough.

They didn't and let it run unchecked till it was too late to stop it.

I hope this is a lesson for the future that if a hospital is seeing an increased number of patients with the same serious symptoms they need to act quickly to contain the spread.

Through the history there have been destruction and disease challenging the planet, the destruction of the Dinosaurs, plagues of Egypt, Black Death, the Great Plague, they had nothing to do with exploiting the planet.
Now silly people are getting excited over an influenza epidemic that looks as if it will kill less than .1% of the population. 1 person per 1000.

However the real disease spread is caused by the number of us who travel, if we are going to avoid a recurrence we need to pay much more attention to disease and health control.

Study of the virus' structure indicates that it developed naturally and was not created in a lab.

www.newscientist.com/term/coronavirus-come-lab/

Clearly we can't remove all risk, but it surely would be sensible to remove obvious risks where we can.

I can't abide people who pick up other people for incorrect grammar, spelling and/or punctuation. Not everyone is proficient for various reasons and to draw attention is just being superior and actually plain rude. It's on a par with criticising a persons accent or pronunciation, insulting and rude and says much more about the criticiser than the person criticised.

Calistemon neither do I.

We must change or we (or rather our grandchildren) have no future,

I try but don't always succeed!!

Callistemon I have noticed you are always ready to listen to reason and weigh it up.

We are responsible for trashing the planet and intruding ever further into remaining wild reserves bringing new viruses into circulation. We deplete resources at an unsustainable level, factory farm animals in wholly inhumane and unsanitary conditions. Perfect storms for more pandemics, now coupled with globalization. No doubt one will emerge from which there's no resistance. We are inviting it in.

I see you meant cause pandemics and not cause viruses now, Furret.

No, you're right Furret we did eradicate smallpox but there are so many others and they have the ability to mutate. There are also many more stored in the earth which could be unleashed as the climate changes.

I didn’t say we ‘caused’ viruses. Duh! I said we caused epidemics. It decided to mutate because it found itself inside a new ‘host’. That host unfortunately had the capacity to pass it on ti humans. It is these primary and secondary hosts that allow these viruses to mutate.

We can control the spread if we are alert (!) to new outbreaks. Had that young doctor in Wuhan been listened to things might have been different.

Callistemon was it arrogant to think we could eliminate smallpox? That was a virus. It was contained by science.

Yes you are right about eating certain animals lemon but we also need to look at the conditions that our ‘usual’ food animals are kept in. There is absolutely nothing, scientifically speaking, to stop some virus mutating in, eg, our intensively-farmed chickens, especially the avian types, and turning into something deadly.

The only thing mankind can do really is to stop eating certain animals once it’s proved that a virus is spreading to them via that route.
That and becoming really good at treating the infections.
Anything else is just wishful thinking.

We don't cause viruses. They exist, they mutate.
The latest one to spread is thousands of years old but we may have enabled its spread by our actions.
For whatever reason, via food or in a laboratory, it decided to mutate and infect humans.

Quite right Lemongrove. I did think my comment rightly belonged in the forum about language usage.

In that case Alexa maybe give your inner teacher a day off.
Am sure it would be appreciated by others on GN too.
A forum ( threads) should flow naturally, and not be stopped by somebody who harangues others for their spellings, or anything at all in their written style.Only content should be disputed.

It's arrogant to think we could control viruses.
We can only control our own behaviour until another one decides it is, as happens, one or more steps ahead of us.
They pre-date humans and will probably still be here on earth and other planets after humans become extinct.

Lemongrove I reported your post for personalised generalised criticism. Gransnet, please note the comment box did not work.