PHOTOS/CHARLES MILLER
TUCSON, AZ — People are looking at the healthcare debate and debacle in completely the wrong fashion. The issue isn’t only money or insurance or entitlement. The issue is the spread of disease. It is extremely difficult for most microbes to take hold in a healthy organism and, whether large or small, any group of humans clustered together is very much a living organism.
If the population is unhealthy, it gets sick. The greater the percentage of infection within a given population, the more likely it is that a disease will spread. Just look at the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu pandemic. Influenza is the most common and one of the deadliest contagious viruses. It is spread mainly when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk. Saliva droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people from as far away as six feet and can even be inhaled into the lungs. People can also get flu by touching a surface or object that has live flu viruses on it and then touching their own mouths or noses.
World War I lasted four years and by its end in 1918 had killed 17 million of the 1.8 billion people on the planet. In the span of eight weeks during that same year, the first round of the Spanish Flu killed 20 million. sequent resurgence of the virus over then next few years infected a third of the planet, killing another 60 to 80 million people. During that same time, life expectancy in the United States dropped by about 12 years, and it is said that this flu killed more people in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.
In 1914 the Earth’s population was a quarter of what it is today. The fastest way to travel back then was by boat or train and it took days, if not weeks, to get from one population center to another. Now we can fly anywhere in a day and most of the people still do not have adequate healthcare.
Based on National Center for Health Statistics mortality surveillance data (July 27, 2017), 5.3 percent of the deaths occurring during the week ending July 8, 2017 were due to pneumonia and influenza. While this percentage is below the epidemic threshold of 6.1%, what about next week, or the one after that?
As George Santayana put it, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Without healthcare for everyone, repeat it we will.
Just remember, microbes don’t care about borders or politics. They don’t care how much money you have or what color your skin is. They don’t care where you live on the planet, how many guns or bullets you have, what gender you are or who you love. Pandemics only care about one thing: whether you are a viable host.
The only way to make sure that you are not a viable host is quality healthcare for you, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, anyone who handles your food, bottles your water, delivers your packages, or breathes the same air.
Simply put, if you don’t care about someone else’s health, then you aren’t caring for your own!
