Let’s take a look at some of this year’s catastrophic events and alleged game changers.
Ebola: It’s a terrible disease that has exacted a terrible cost for West Africans — 20,000 infected and 7,800 fatalities. And epidemiologists agree that viewed against the history of at least two dozen previous outbreaks, many failed to appreciate how much more catastrophic the 2014 version would be.
But even now, some health care experts believe that had these signs been detected earlier this spring, and a more coordinated response been implemented, even this disastrous outbreak might have been better contained.
Still, consider: Last century, the Spanish flu — a far more easily transmitted disease than Ebola — affected about one-third of the planet’s population and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people, including some 675,000 Americans. This is only slightly less than the number of deaths that the nation’s leading killer — heart disease — claims today. Ebola is bad, very bad.
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