Excellent posts,
double barrel and
fdr! When I started this thread I must admit that thoughts of a Global Pandemic were on my mind. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. One third of the Earth's population - then 500 million - contracted the disease; 20 to 50 million perished. One of the faster aircraft of that era was the Fokker Dr.I triplane, which featured a Vne of 115 m.p.h. Had mid-air refueling been available, von Richthofen and/or Snoopy the Beagle could have completed a global circumnavigation in 209 hours or 8.69 days. Today's commercial aircraft perform the same feat in about forty hours - no point on our planet is more than 20 hours away from its complimentary antipode.
Now consider that, within the last 48 hours, a new cogener of MRSA (methycillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) was discovered. This strain is resistant to
every known antibiotic in our armamentarium. Another finding is a fifth member of the Ebola virus family. (If you have not read Richard Preston's
The Hot Zone, I urge you to do so. Frightening nonfiction!) 86 deaths now reported in the Congo; some of those are in a large city.
Many of my family members are physicians. One of my friends was the Chief Epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All echo the sentiments expressed in the title of my post - fatal third space exsanguination or apnea secondary to neural quadriplegia is but twenty hours away at any time, and viruses don't care whether they're flying economy or business class!
Now off to drink a beer and think happier thoughts!
- Ed
FOKKER DR.I 1918