The influenza outbreak of 1919 had an adverse impact to the New York state as the pandemic killed thousands of its population. It was estimated that in New York City alone, the death rate reached 4.7 for every 1,000 individuals. Nationally, the US had an approximate number of 675, 000 deaths, which is ten times the number of death due to military encounters during WWI. The world suffered from 20 to 40 million deaths because of the outbreak making it the world’s most devastating pandemic in history.
Nevertheless, despite the presence of such technologies, the possibility of having a similar outbreak cannot be totally eliminated. The main reason for this is that the 1919 influenza outbreak can be considered a natural event, it was not man-made. Today, intentional bio-warfare is perceived to be a great possibility whenever there are threats of war and terrorism. According to rand.org (2016) two of the modern bioweapons that have high potentials for causing an outbreak in the future are the anthrax and botulinum toxin caused by Clostridium botulinum.
Bibliography
Aimone, Francesco. “The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in New York City: A Review of the Public Health Response,” Public Health Repository 125, no.3 (2010): 71-79.
Billings, Molly. “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918,” Stanford.edu, 2005, https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/.
“Biological Warfare agents,” rand.org. 206. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1018z1/mr1018.1.ch7.pdf.
Byerley, Carol R. “The U.S. Military and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919,” Emu.dk, 200, http://www.emu.dk/sites/default/files/US%20Military%20and%20the%20Influenza%20Pandemic%201918-1919.pdf.
“Disease Emergence and Resurgence: The Wildlife–Human Connection,” USGS.gov, n.d., https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/disease_emergence/Chapter6.pdf.
