Word: flu
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...years since, society's fear of (and fascination with) sharks and terrorism has not abated. However, we've added a handful of other apocalyptic anxieties: mass extinction, proliferating nukes, global flooding, swine flu, bird flu, peak oil, economic collapse. The end of the world has long been the subject of a popular genre of TV, books and movies. Now, in the 21st century tradition of fear as entertainment, it has its own reality show. In Discovery's The Colony, 10 volunteers are barricaded in a warehouse, without running water or electricity, to simulate surviving after the end of civilization...
...late 60s is driving, anxiously checking his mirrors and talking about the people he's sure are pursuing him. He's wearing a surgical mask and gives the impression of Jason Bourne as a possibly batty senior citizen, still dodging bad guys and, maybe, swine flu...
...estimated 25,000 that human beings possess--but its simplicity hasn't stopped it from wreaking havoc on humanity for centuries. Even today, with vaccines and antivirals, normal seasonal influenza kills some 36,000 Americans each year. And every once in a while, it gets much worse. When new flu viruses arise and begin spreading easily, they can trigger global pandemics. Sometimes they're relatively mild, like the pandemics of 1957 and '68. But sometimes they can be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed as many as 100 million people...
...living through a pandemic right now, but we don't yet know if the H1N1/09 virus--the new official name for what was first called swine flu--will sear the history books or merely strike us a glancing blow. In just a few months, H1N1/09 has spread to nearly every country in the world, infecting so many people that the World Health Organization has officially stopped counting. In nations where it is already winter, like Argentina, H1N1/09 has caused billions of dollars in damage, and China is quarantining foreigners suspected to have the flu. In the U.S., the virus...
...issued Aug. 23, officials said. In the meantime, CDC experts are closely monitoring the march of H1N1 through the southern hemisphere, in Australia and in South America as well as in the U.S. So far, data show that the virus is having about the same health impact as seasonal flu, which still causes about 30,000 deaths each year. And, as Sebelius noted, "Typically parents do not keep their children home if their classmates come down with the flu." That's worth remembering this fall, as the school year gets under...