Stephen Flynn’s recent book
The Edge of Disaster, featured on national public radio this week, describes a number of large scale vulnerabilities across the United States. His thoughts on pandemic flu, while certainly concerning, pale in comparison to the real numbers.
Mr. Flynn describes 80 million infected with as many as 800,000 dying of the disease. However, a review of Avian flu pandemic over the last 300 years shows that one-third of the U.S. population or 100 million people will be infected. If this is not enough one half of these individuals or 50 million will require some level of hospitalization or institutional care from bone health all the way up to intensive care unit services. As Mr. Flynn correctly pointed out there are fewer than 970,000 hospital beds in the United States far less than the 50 million that will be required.
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