It’s 6 AM on a warm August day in 1997. The temperature is forecasted to reach about 50°F (10°C). A muted magenta glow blankets rolling hills, sunlight returning to the bitterly cold grassland. It hasn’t been gone long – just 6 hours ago that same sun dropped below the southwestern horizon, right around midnight.
Now that it’s back from brief retreat, 73-year-old Johan Hultin is beginning to dig. At least, he’s beginning the process of digging. First, he needs to heat the frigid earth, Alaska’s perpetually frozen soil known as “permafrost.” To do this, he and his hearty Inuit recruits are blasting the ground with steam. When the topsoil is soft enough to penetrate, they will use spades to dig until they hit more frozen dirt. Back to the steam. Then more digging. Steam. Dig. Steam. Dig.
What are they looking for? What underground secrets could possibly be worth this mud-soaked, laborious, and physically exhausting process?
Electron micrograph of the 1918 influenza.Hultin and his team are looking for answers to a question that had loomed over the world for 8 decades: what killed 5% of the global population in the year 1918? Ostensibly, the cause was known – a viral influenza unlike any the world had seen before. But Hultin’s mission in August of 1997 was to help unravel the how and the why.
Given that influenzas typically overwhelm immune systems of the elderly, the very young, or the already ill, why did this one wipe out millions in their 20s and 30s at peak health?
How did such a deadly virus come to be and how was it transmitted the world over?
And lastly, what clues can we glean from this ancient killer to prevent such a worldwide catastrophe from ever happening again?
Canadian men dig a mass grave for the overwhelming number of victims.Its story, as we will see, is one of unfortunate circumstance, enormous suffering, and persistent scientific detective work. We’ll also see how the 1918 flu changed our understanding of the virus itself, helping researchers a century later as they work to develop a holy grail of modern medicine: the universal flu vaccine.
In the next episode, we’ll shoot back to 1918 to explore the historical context of this viral killer and to begin recounting the immense agony it produced.
See you next week Steemers!
Image credits:
Flu virus - Wikimedia Commons
Grave - Wikimedia Commons
Crazy that a century later we're still dealing with flu viruses that kill thousands every year. Hope they are able to develop that universal vaccine. Can't wait to read the rest of this series @warrensz - I barely know anything about this but one thing for sure, I know how it feels (just like most of us) to be out sick with a flu!
Thanks for reading friend! Looking forward to intertwining the science, history, and mystery of this forgotten pandemic.
Good work! I must add a few comments.
Not sure if universal vaccine is the way to go, as vaccine designed today have an alarming amount of heavy metals (aluminum, mercury, ...), but also other very bad elements like antibiotics. Keep in mind that heavy metals like aluminum are not supposed to be in the body (aluminum didn't exist 400 years ago), and thus you can imagine the terrible consequences for the body (autism, alzheimer, weakened immune system, autoimmune disease ...).
Vaccine do not protect in the long term and that is why people have to get vaccinated again, again and again. Scientists are working on an alternative method to vaccine based on synthetic genes. You can find more details with this link : https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/health/protection-without-a-vaccine.html .
Vaccines, especially for something like the flu virus do not work, in fact people that are vaccined with the flu vaccine are sicker. If those vaccines were working, there would be not one getting the flu anymore. There are natural ways to fight for the flu virus such as intravenous vitamin C (or L-ascorbic acid) at high dose (>5 grams). It is natural and it does not harm the body.
If you have a question or comment please let me know, but good work!
Thanks for your comments @juv79505 though I have to push back on some of your points...
There is almost no evidence that vaccines cause the sorts of consequences you describe. Also, aluminum is an element but not a heavy metal, and it has certainly been around for much, much longer than 400 years. In fact, it's the most abundant metal element on earth.
Very interesting article about genetic immune protection. I know there is work being done to create genetic immune boosters that prevent most diseases by increasing the efficacy the immune system.
Rarely does someone, especially someone with an uncompromised immune system, who gets the flu vaccine go on to get the illness. Flu vaccines are engineered in the summer based on scientists' best predictions for what the winter flu strain will look like. Sometimes their guesses are very accurate, sometimes they aren't. But even if someone gets the flu after getting the vaccine, studies have shown the illness is milder and less likely to result in hospitalization.
Also, not sure I would qualify a 5 gram dose of IV Vit C as "natural" -- and I certainly would prefer to get a flu shot over that. There is little evidence Vitamin C does much of anything for the immune system.
Thanks for the comment. Just read your article on the mantis shrimp from yesterday. Very interesting! I want to see Wi-Fi!
Thank you for your reply @warrensz I really appreciate it! I have to reply to some of your points.
1."There is almost no evidence that vaccines cause the sorts of consequences you describe" I have some credible source and I am going to share with you. I wish I could upload the pdf but I am relatively new to steemit so I am not sure how to but you can google (or use another searching agent as google AI might censore what you want to see) "Aluminium in brain tissue in autism by Matthew Mold et. al", "Empirical Data Confirm Autism Symptoms Related to
Aluminum and Acetaminophen Exposure by Stephanie Seneff et al.", "The relationship between mercury and autism: A comprehensive review and discussion by Janet Kern et al." and that is just the tip of the iceberg trust me. You should also watch the movie "Vaxxed by Robert Deniro" and that should give you further hint that something is not going right.
You also said "Also, aluminum is an element but not a heavy metal, and it has certainly been around for much, much longer than 400 years". Keep in mind that Aluminium is the newest metal of all, and you can check those links for further reference: https://goo.gl/zBmLii and https://goo.gl/djCSzw. They indeed mention that Aluminium was not used for commercial use until the 19th century. Keep in mind that Aluminium in its commercial form as we know is an artificially created metal and thus can be made artificially for very cheap, hence why it is the most abundant metal on earth like you said yourself. Also remember that because it is an artificially created compound, just like GMO, it is not normally supposed to be in the body, so you can definitely expect it to create some harm to the body. The evidence are overwhelming (I just gave you some), the problem why it is not easy to get access to those information is because they are systematically censored, it is a Big Big money industry.
Thank you for reading my articles, I am extremely thankful to you and I really appreciate it :) !
"Rarely does someone, especially someone with an uncompromised immune system, who gets the flu vaccine go on to get the illness" honestly I really disagree with this one. Even from a personal point of view, I used to do research in a lab as a graduate student and I remember a lot of people that got vaccined would regularly get sick and not to mention the long term effects of it (https://goo.gl/7wLTWX) . Also, people that are vaccined by live virus can spread the disease, and you can look that evidence by looking at the John Hopkins Vaccine patient guide. Just google "H.98_Jennifer Stella_Additional testimony, Jennifer Stella_5-6-2015.pdf" on page 2 and you will see. That page 2 was later censored (guess why) and that is why I am not sending you directly to the JOhn Hopkins website.
" Also, not sure I would qualify a 5 gram dose of IV Vit C as "natural" -- and I certainly would prefer to get a flu shot over that." It would be a huge mistake, again I must reemphasize that vaccines are full of very toxic elements to our body (heavy metals , antibiotics, formaldehyde and many other things. Look at those links for further details https://goo.gl/PstvWa, https://goo.gl/v9cVpb and https://goo.gl/jBWnaN for further details. Vitamin C on the other hand (provided that you buy the right kind organic L-ascorbic one) can have very good effects to our body(intravenously at high dose), I actually wrote an article on that on my blog so you can look for that, but here are some links to back up what I am saying anyway: https://goo.gl/TmlZ0 and https://goo.gl/wEPW1f. Of course, if someone wants to use iv vitamin C at high dose, he must ask a nutrition specialist (a good one) for the appropriate dose, because it depends on his weight, height, gender, lifestyle etc ...
"Very interesting article about genetic immune protection." You are very welcome and glad you liked it! :)
Please let me know if you have comments or questions as I strongly believe that it is by exchanging ideas and point of view and by having access to the right knowledge that we can become all stronger. I used to be a provaccine about 2 years ago ( I am a Ph.D student in the health field) but I gradually had to change my mind when I started to be exposed to some different litterature. Also, I have a daughter that is just a toddler so that gave me a lot of extra strength and motivation to do a lot of research on this topic and trust me what I just shared with you is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot more that we don't know. I define myself as neither a provaccine or a full antivaccine. I need to do more research on this to further know and understand it but I am definitely closer to the antivaccine view given what I know. I really try to further educate myself on this topic because I believe in science, the real science.
Hope that this was not too long, again please feel free to comment if you have a question or comment. Thanks again for your comment!
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