A forgotten pandemic. Bedridden workforces. Over 1 million dead. A deadly second wave. The Hong Kong flu of the 1960s showed what can happen when a virus is left unchecked. My latest via @WSJ wsj.com/articles/forgo…
The largely forgotten 1968 virus triggered a state of emergency in NYC; caused so many deaths in Berlin that corpses were stored in subway tunnels; overwhelmed London’s hospitals; and in some areas of France left half of the workforce bedridden. @WSJ wsj.com/articles/forgo…
In 1969, the British postal and train services and French manufacturing suffered large disruptions from Hong Kong flu-induced absenteeism. In West Germany, garbage collectors had to bury the dead because of a lack of undertakers. @WSJ wsj.com/articles/forgo…
The Hong Kong Flu of 1968-70 killed estimated 100,000 in the U.S., 30,000 in France and Britain, and up to 60,000 in both parts of then divided Germany. Yet it has evaporated from collective remembrance, a testament to our resilience and short memory. @WSJ wsj.com/articles/forgo…
The German government played down the lethality of the Hong Kong Flu, welcoming that it seemed to only kill the elderly and the very young, said Malte Thiessen, a German historian specializing in pandemics wsj.com/articles/forgo…
A vaccine, if it comes, will take months so curbing the death toll isn’t only a humanitarian imperative,but will also eventually prevent greater economic damage,said @yaneerbaryam a physicist who predicted the #coronavirus pandemic after the China outbreak wsj.com/articles/forgo…
The 1968 pandemic killed an estimated 1 million people. It should have been a warning to governments to be better prepared and ready to act much faster, said @yaneerbaryam. Instead, naive faith in technological progress let the crisis fade from memories wsj.com/articles/forgo…
The second wave of the 1968 pandemic was deadlier in most countries. #Coronavirus is a different pathogen but many experts fear the same could happen again wsj.com/articles/forgo… 
