July 22 Flu Update
An Egyptian woman has tested positive for bird flu.Revere blogs the recent news from Cuba that the nation has a flu surveillance system. Revere, in fact, thinks they will fare better in a pandemic than the US.
posted by Orange @ 8:50 PM
1 Comments:
Orange;
Revere’s article on Cuba is interesting. His assumption that because they have UHC, resilient communities and a more supportive social structure they would fare better during a pandemic than the US is quite intriguing.
I guess I would agree that in general Cuba has a surprisingly robust UHC system (he is right, most people are unaware of it), so I would be in agreement on that point. As far as resilience and a more supportive social structure – nah, not when it comes down to the deprivation and supply chain shortages all nations would face during a severe pandemic. We’d all be under the gun (so to speak). It would take their UHC system long to come to its knees, like our own. A protracted pandemic, in waves, spares nobody, and would have profound effects on all social classes.
In all nations, the poor and underprivileged will all be exposed to the same degree – they will suffer most, no matter what the geography or world region. Shortages of medicine and food would be felt simultaneously everywhere in the world at some critical point, pretty much.
However, I do think because of Cuba’s strict dictatorial and rigid communistic government, along with its small per capita, and UHC system, the overall impact of a pandemic on its population would be far less than the US, at least initially. The US has a heck of lot of undisciplined, poor and irresponsible people packed densely into its large urban centers, who owe allegiance to nobody and who dismally fail the citizenship test, and who would seek to take advantage of others and the disease, in any way possible.
In other words, in my view, you may not see a lot of Cuban’s busting into stores stealing TV flatscreen’s and beer during a pandemic, but I’ll bet you sure will see this in the US at some point. (Think Katrina and you know what I mean).
Wulfgang
Post a Comment
<< Home