2009 flu could have echoed 1918
The 2009 H1N1 pandemic had the potential to be as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, which killed more than 50 million people, Canada’s chief public health officer said Monday, crediting modern medical science and public health practices for the far-lower mortality. David Butler-Jones said were it not for the development of new antiviral drugs, medical equipment like ventilators, and other advances, global deaths would have far outstripped the estimated 12,000 to 18,000 from H1N1. Butler-Jones said the H1N1 outbreak was a lot like the Y2K computer bug, where the fear that massive computer failures would result from two-digit computer clocks resetting to 1900 instead of 2000 prompted a major effort to update equipment ahead of Jan. 1, 2000. Afterward, when there was little disruption, some critics complained that the effort had never been needed in the first place. “People forgot that computers that weren’t treated did fail,” Butler-Jones said. “If...