RSA Thursday - The Forgotten Fallen November 13, 2008

The death toll from the Great Flu of 1918-19 was simply incomprehensible, with as many as 100 million dead worldwide.

Ninety years on, as the world faces the prospect of a new pandemic, triggered this time by the bird flu virus H5N1, science journalist Mark Honigsbaum recalls the ‘forgotten’ story of the 1918 influenza and examines how British society and public institutions might cope with a similarly devastating outbreak today.

Would Britons present a ‘stiff-upper lip’ as they did in 1918 or would there be widespread panic?

Would patients heed the Department of Health’s call to stay at home and telephone the National Flu hotline for advice, or would they besiege chemists and GP’s surgeries demanding antiviral medications and vaccines?

And given Britain’s ‘just-in-time’ economy and our dependence on international markets, how would the government prevent an economic meltdown and a Northern Rock-style run on banks, supermarkets and petrol stations?

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