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Originally Posted by H5N1
there's a problem with that... with air travel being what it is now, any form of biological warfare could VERY EASILY backfire on us-- yeah, it would kill a lot of them (that's not morbid, is it?), but if just one infected person catches one of thousands of flights to ANYWHERE in the 'western' world, spreads it to a couple of people traveling other places, then you have a possible pandemic on your hands
which aren't good for the human race period... the last few 'true' pandemics were in 1918 (swine flu, of which avian flu is related) and europe in the fourteenth century--bubonic plague... you think people panic at the threat of terrorism? just imagine how much people would panic if people were dying by the millions worldwide and our infrastructure collapsed under the weight of unpreparedness (one can never be ready enough for a global plague)
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Excellent post.
Further, the question is not "if" it will happen, but when.
The largest pandemic ever, however, happened on this continent. Native Americans were not overrun by superior tech - but by animal domestication. Europeans had more immunity to small pox (which came from cattle) than Native Americans (who had no immunity because they had no cattle to domesticate and thereby had not evolved in a way to prevent mass deaths.) There are some pretty good estimates out there that say 75-100 million Indians died after contact with Europeans.