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Originally Posted by T3rminator
So apart from Spanish flu, there hasn't been a specific disease that has caused so much carnage in such a short period of time?
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No, here there hasn't*. Most of the playbook they used in WA was straight from how they handled spanish flu here, including quarantine, masks and banning anyone leaving Perth (they had road blocks back then too).
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Despite attempts to contain the disease, it eventually entered the civilian population. Estimates put the death toll in Australia at about 12,000. Western Australia fared better than the more populous eastern states but even so 638 people are known to have died from it here. A free inoculation in W.A. was available and health authorities administered almost 95,000 doses of vaccine
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(The spanish flu arrived here after the war BTW, not during it).
People have been studying the spanish flu for a long time, including knowing how well let it rip, herd immunity vs lock downs work. The latter works better BTW ;-)
*of course there's been SARs and others in non western countries, but nothing major in Aus, USA or europe since the spanish flu.
SARs is worse than the flu because it can be airborne as we took alomst a year to figure out! Droplets, surfaces etc that the flu spreads with is lower risk or more controllable.
E: The worst thing about the spanish flu is it somehow used your health against you. It was the younger, more fitter people more likely to die from it!
second worse thing was that no one knew how to make a proper flu vaccine back then so NFI what the hell they were taking! But they rolled up for WA and took it
Some talk about that 'vaccine' here:
https://www.mdpi.com/2414-6366/3/1/1...almed-03-00017