The 1918 Influenza killed more Americans in one year than those that died in battle in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. If a virus as deadly as the 1918 flu became a pandemic today, it would kill more people than heart disease, stroke, cancers, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS, and Alzheimer's combined. Death estimates worldwide range from 20 million to over a 100 million, as many remote areas that were decimated by the flu did not keep mortality records. This strain of flu was 25 times more virulent than seasonal flu and it's death curve looks like a W, with mortality rates peaking for children under the age of 5, elderly 70-74, and the group that normally has the lowest death rate for the seasonal flu, people ages 20-40.

Anna Dela Cruz

Biology in Society

November 24, 2009

Interesting conversation this morning growing out of, among other things, "The Design of Learning Environments," Chapter 6 of How People Learn, together with some college student comparisons of experiences in their own courses with observations of elementary school classes at a local K-6 Quaker school.  The upshot was, for me at least, a clearer understanding of what one needs to do to create not only more effective learning environments in classrooms but more humane exchange environments generally.