Years ago I read a book called hot zone from which the Hoffman film was adapted, right rivetin read and scarey as. Years ago now so I may misremember the details but their was an outbreak in a monkey house in the middle of a major us city, before they knew what was going on, every single monkey / ape in the place and every human that worked their was infected. All animals died, but the particular strain was a tiny bit genetically different from human lethal forms and was in fact next to completely harmless to humans, with nobody suffering more than minor symptoms. Had it been a 'hot strain' you would have had something with next to 100% proximity infection with 90% lethality in the middle of a major western city.
One of the reasons - according to the book - that Ebola hasn't done more damage is its
too lethal - it kills too fast to spread. Aids was presented as the opposite end of the spectrum - it can take years to present, which allowed its spread. It's also very hard to catch outside sexual practices that involved bleeding, or needle sharing etc, the nightmare scenario is something in between - easy to catch, slow to present, highly lethal, there are strains of some of these diseases that each have bits if that lethal formula - if it ever comes together,...
Aids is a mentalist itself - I can't remember specifics but in order of magnitude terms it mutates more times in a few weeks than the flu has done in all human history or something like that. The hit fear was that it would 'aerosolise' ie be transmittable over the air via coughs and sneezes like the flu or cold. Again if that happened the chips would be in - and as I say, bear in mind, it mutates every few weeks more than the flu has ever done, and then difference in a flu mutation can be winter sniffles or tens of millions dead.
And then there is Bacteria immune to antibiotics. That said for some reason it still produces an irrational meh in me. I was always the kind to eat a sweetie that feell on the ground while all,the fastidious ****s always seemed more sickly.
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Indeed, In true Hollywood style, 'patient zero' is found in the nick of time...antidote made and world disaster is averted. Phew!
This doesn`t quite pan out that way though. The boffins have been searching for something to slow this hideous virus for at least 20 years.....nothing yet as far as i know.
If this awful $#@! thing breaks out into the world....it`ll be major $#@!in scary and dont expect Dustin Hoffman to ride to the rescue.
They actually identified (or believe they have) patient zero who brought aids to the west - poor sod, some legacy.
