Using the panel
discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August
2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the
BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #2306
(page 50). The link is provided below…
Anatomy of a Pandemic:
Pandemics make frequent appearances in SF. But do what we read in books or see
on the screen anything like real pandemics? The world just experienced the
Ebola pandemic. The panel will discuss how real pandemics are likely to play
out, and how that compares with their depiction in fiction.
SF writers have used past pandemics as story background – as
in Connie Willis’ DOOMSDAY BOOK and Michael Flynn’s EIFELHEIM – as well as future
pandemics like Matheson’s I AM LEGEND (which, paradoxically reversed in the
movie, is all about the “zombies” fearing
the uninfected) and the pre-story for the wildly popular YA MAZE RUNNER series
called THE KILL ORDER.
With the Ebola epidemic in West Africa “safely” out of the
news (NOT out of reality, unfortunately, as the disease continues to kill
people, though at a substantially reduced rate...I am sure that’s a comfort to
the families[http://apps.who.int/ebola/ebola-situation-reports])
and with the influenza season rapidly approaching in North America, there seems
to be no real concern (http://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/updates/latest_update_GIP_surveillance/en/)
So why do we keep worrying at this whole pandemic story? It’s
not like Modern Medicine can’t handle a little virus, right – kicked Ebola’s
skriggly butt, didn’t we? Africa’s not only got a cure, they’ve got a vaccine,
right? So writers like John Scalzi, in his book LOCK IN (book 1) are just
whiling away the hours, trying to scare us like Stephen King did in THE STAND.
There’s no real fear or nothing, right?
The staid ATLANTIC magazine brooks no hysteria, only calm,
clear concern (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/preventing-the-next-pandemic-ebola-spotlight-health-aspen-ideas-festival/397040/);
while others like The Guardian hover on the verge of tabloid hysteria, making
sure their quotes are framed in the most frightening way possible, “‘The virus
is smarter than we are at this point. I don’t know of any disease that plagues
us more. It’s very, very frustrating and a very inexact science,’ Robert Daum a
Chicago doctor who heads the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee
that makes the US recommendations, told The Post earlier this year, as the
committee was about to meet to discuss strains to include in the coming season’s
vaccines. ‘We do it with varying luck, and I think the luck is mostly the
virus’ whim.’” (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/08/computer-model-predict-flu-outbreaks)
My opinion is that it will sneak up on us from nowhere,
blindsiding society because of an extended incubation period, and sweep across
the planet until a significant part of Humanity has died off...
I’d have loved to be in on this discussion – anyone out
there hear what was said?
No comments:
Post a Comment