Comments on: Is the Fourth Beast the Avian Flu?

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:59:02 +0000

To all of you out there if you know about Gods words in his bible that he made for us, and all the stories of when he destored the wicked ones,and his promise that he will do it again.I your mind if you were God do'nt you think that this might be the time to get his message across. I believe that there is only 1/3 of his people left, and for those concerned they must be you becaue you know his truth.

By: nikki b.

nikki b. — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 21:34:24 +0000

The 1918 flu jumped from animals to people in Haskell County, Kansas. It was called the Spanish Flu because during the first months of the pandemic, only the Spanish media were truthfully reporting about the seriousness of the situation. (The U.S., French and British governments were downplaying it and the media in those countries was heavily censored because of the war.) Until recently, it was unclear whether the flu strain that caused the pandemic had come from swine or birds (both typically carry influenza viruses that can jump between the two species and to humans), but recent evidence suggests that it came from birds. From the Wikipedia article on the Spanish Flu:

“Recently, scientists have reconstructed the virus, and the evidence gained from that reconstruction suggests that the virus jumped directly from birds to humans, without traveling through the swine.”

An excellent book on the 1918 pandemic is “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry. It provides a lot of information about how viruses mutate and spread as well as the progression of the 1918 virus and the efforts that were made to contain it. It also gives an interesting history of the state of the medical profession up to that time. (Only 20 years before WWW1, you could get a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and become a practicing doctor by passing 5 out of 9 of your classes and never seeing a patient.)

By: kristen j

kristen j — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 09:34:49 +0000

A friend of mine told me that the 1918 flu was also a “bird flu”. I believed her at the time but am wondering if it’s just folklore.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 21:09:49 +0000

No, it is just flu. Flu happens every year. Some flu is more potent that other flu.

By: phaedra

phaedra — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:38:08 +0000

omg

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 05:29:52 +0000

hmmm…interesting. The definative sources say that he died of pleurisy, which is caused by, among other things, influenza. Several non-authoritative sources cite him as dying of the flu.

By: Jared

Jared — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 04:51:32 +0000

I’ve never seen his death attributed to flu either, although the timing was right.

By: Julie in Austin

Julie in Austin — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 03:47:41 +0000

“I wouldn’t doubt that some said the same thing in 1918 during the spanish flu, which killed the prophet.”

Do you have a source for that? I thought he’d been sick with an old-age-kinda-thing for six months. I read several sources that didn’t mention flu.

By: Bret

Bret — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 03:34:13 +0000

Doesn’t it say right there that Death will come by the sword and famine along with disease? So how could it be the one bird flu epidemic?

By: ed

ed — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 02:25:58 +0000

Well, if the fourth horseman is any bad epidemic, then I suppose the bird flu could be that. But if the fourth horseman is supposed to be one particularly severe epidemic, I’m not so sure. There have been lots of really bad epidemics in the past: bubonic plague, smallpox (especially among native americans), the 1918 flu, and many others. Not to mention the millions upon millions killed by endemic diseases like malaria and (now) AIDS.