Flu is an amazing virus, it is probably what will eventually kill us all. As with the "Spanish Flu" in 1918-1919, flu is fatal to some segment of the population every year. As a virus, it mutates extremely fast, hence new strains of the flu annually. A flu shot covers several of the most common, dangerous or dominate flu strains annually, but there are dozens more out there so a flu shot is no guarantee you will not get the flu.
I work or have worked for decades in the water and/or power generation industry. Every major water crisis or power outage we have ever averted has been avoided because not all of the factors where in place at the same time. The wind storm hits, thousands of tree are down and tens of thousands are out of power. We do not have a serious water emergency because people cannot do most household chores without power, so they use less water. We do not have a power emergency because people can drive a few miles to get a meal or go to the movies. We miss the humanitarian disaster because it is not 0 degrees or 100 degrees, since windstorms do not occur on the hottest or coldest days of the year. It is all simply dumb luck..............................just like a killer flu epidemic.
In 1918, the world was at war. The United States opted to send disease ridden men to Europe anyway, because the need outweighed the risk of death for 15% of them from flu. These men promptly infected millions more men, women and children living in squalid conditions with weakened immune systems, poor nourishment and poor hygiene. It was the absolute worst time to have a serious flu outbreak.
2017-18 Flu killed 80,000 people. Imagine the flu in a Bernie Sanders world, 20% unemployment, 50% poverty, failing agriculture and millions living off public kitchens and food stamps. All of these people supported medically by a failure of a public health system built on the model of our current system of dirty, uncaring Veteran's Hospitals. Doctor's are on fixed salaries and do not give a crap, nurses are selling meds on the black market and patients are left to die because they had an emergency during break time and unions run these places. It is very easy to see that with a few minor changes to a communist form of government and failed social policies, we can easily kill millions of Americans with a flu outbreak.
Socialist medicine in France had between 13,000 and 14,000 deaths in 2017-2018. The numbers, corrected for population size show their free medicine was not even a tiny bit better than America's health care system in lowering flu deaths.
Just like 1919, if you want to die in a mass flu epidemic,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,vote for democrats. I'm glad I could help.
