"Are you worried about a species- threatening event?"
He stared at me, " what do you mean by that?"
"I mean a virus that wipes us out"
"Well it could happen. Certainly it hasn't happened yet. Im not worried. More likely it would be a virus that reduces us by some percentage. By thirty percent. By ninety percent."
"Nine out of ten humans killed and you aren't bothered?"
To think that one cant be frightened by the thought of a virus being capable of wiping out over 50 percent of the human population is mind blowing. His response was that a virus like that can do us good, that it could thin us out. Karl Johnson, a virus hunter who lived in the rain forest of Central and South America, helped discover the at the time new virus, and named it Ebola. He and Patricia Webb who helped discover the virus said they were "worms". They saw snakes , pigtails, branchy, forked, things that looked like the letter Y, and they noticed a squiggle like the letter g. A classic shape, the Shepard's crook, is something else they noticed within the virus. The first ever photographed picture of Ebola was on October 13th, 1976 by Fredrick A. Murphy. it was magnified 112,000 times and the lumpy rope-like features in the particle are the mysterious structural proteins that surround a single strand of RNA, which is the virus's genetic code. Johnson questioned whether or not the virus could be spread by droplets in the air, almost like influenza. "If Ebola had spread easily through the air, the world would be a very different place today."
I cant imagine, what it would be like if a virus had wiped us out. Or going through each day knowing that humans are dying and there might not be a way to control or even stop it. There would be complete chaos.
3 comments:
Ejiro,
After reading several posts about the Ebola virus, I have to say it sounds more than frightening. The fact that it causes a fatality in 90% of those infected is terrifying, but knowing there is no vaccine or treatment is even worse. I can't imagine contracting the virus and being given a basic death sentence, and a painful one at that. Why do you think there is no available treatment? Do you know any alternatives or remedies given to patients?
its scary to even think about death, but the fact that its a virus and slowly kills you is even scarier. could such a thing like a virus outbreak, killing half the worlds population come true? we would be experiencing it in real life and not just in movies. If a virus does break out, what do we all do then? should we just quarantine the people who are already infected?
I can not think of anything more frightening than being entirely wiped out by a virus. 90% is just unbelievable. It really pushes the question as to if we really are capable of handling something this strong come at us. There have obviously been the break outs of diseases and viruses all over the world but to just think about it happening daily to people is scary. I guess it all depends on what we are prepared to do to prevent such an outbreak that is slowly approaching our lives.
Post a Comment