Looking at a past pandemic (Swine Flu)
1) Note the timeline – April 2009 (first reported case in US), June 2009 (declared pandemic), ~June 2009 (research funding in US), Sept 2009 (Vaccine starting to be available). August 2010 (resolved).
2) Was reaction this severe? List of celebs affected? Concern on hospital beds?
3) Funding efforts (I’ll have another post on this later)
https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-h1n1-swine-flu-770496
“Although swine flu doesn't typically affect humans, there was a global outbreak (pandemic) in 2009–2010, the first flu pandemic in more than 40 years.
H1N1 was first detected in April 2009 in a 10-year-old girl in California. It was declared a global pandemic in June 2009 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and was finally over in August 2010.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that swine flu infected nearly 61 million people in the United States and caused 12,469 deaths. Worldwide, up to 575,400 people died from pandemic swine flu.
SOOOO, what did the Celebrity count look like in 2009? Who can forget the non-stop coverage of these people having the disease? What, you don’t remember the updates on these people and their status?
https://www.celebritydiagnosis.com/2009/10/celebrity-swine-flu/
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Anderson Cooper, 42, Journalist, author and TV personality
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Brian Litrell, 34, Singer-songwriter, former Backstreet Boy
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Dennis Hopper, 73, Actor and filmmaker
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Harry Smith, 58, Television personality
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Lisa Rinna, 46, Actress
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Major Garrett, 47, White House correspondent for Fox News
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Marilyn Manson, 40, Musician
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Rachel Maddow, 36, Radio and TV personality and political commentator
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Rupert Grint, 21, Actor of Harry Potter Fame
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Sanjay Gupta, 39, Neurosurgeon and medical correspondent for CNN
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Vincente Padilla, 32, Major League Baseball pitcher
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/27317-over-100-countries-affected-by-deadly-swine-flu-till-date
“…numerous global celebrities like Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias Sanchez, famous Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, former British Premier Tony Blair’s wife Cherie and the British Cabinet Minister for Children, Schools and Families Michael Gove etc have also caught this virus in recent years, a research conducted by the Jang Group/Geo Television network reveals.” [No sauce on this in article]
Research (also from https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/27317-over-100-countries-affected-by-deadly-swine-flu-till-date)
“As soon as Swine Flu fatalities were reported in the United States, Mexico and Canada during 2009, Washington DC had doled out a billion dollars in 2009 to the world’s three leading pharmaceutical firms in 2009 to fuel the rapid development of a vaccine that could guard against this infectious disease, also called the “Pig Influenza.” [Looks to be ~June 2009 time but no sauce]
Renowned Swiss company Novartis was given $289 million, the Paris-based Sanofi Aventis was dished out $191 million and a distinguished British multinational pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare company Messrs Glaxo SmithKline was extended a federal support of $181 million to fund the clinical tests on a new vaccine. [This article doesn’t give the ~$1.5B breakdown to WHO and much larger $$$ for long-term fundings]
On September 15, 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the new Swine Flu vaccine for use in the country. A single dose of this vaccine was good at creating enough antibodies to protect against the virus. (Reference: The US National Institute of Health)”