“Nah, we’ll just let the other 372 per 100,000 die.”

The New York Times has a great article on how Philadelphia and St Louis reacted to the 1918 Spanish flu (to the detriment of Philadelphia). The conclusion is a downer:

What these results mean for a future epidemic is not clear. “If

avian flu became a pandemic tomorrow,” Dr. Ferguson said, “we would

start a crash program to make a vaccine.”

But he added that

rigid preventive measures like quarantines, mandated mask wearing and

widespread business closings would still need to be put in place.

“What

our study shows,” he continued, “is that interventions even without a

vaccine can be effective in blocking transmission. What’s much less

certain is whether society is prepared to bear the costs of

implementing such intrusive and costly measures for the months that

would be required to manufacture a vaccine.” [my emphasis]

Yeah, because it’s so important that I go to the mall and buy stuff, that another 5,200 people in town should die of the flu. I’m saving this one for my epi class next spring.

Tip from the Instapundit.