Product Description
No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Presumed to have begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a… More >>
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History
Tags: Deadliest, Epic, epidemic of 1918, farm animals, ferocity, Great, History, Influenza, influenza epidemic of 1918, lethal strain, middle ages, Plague, plagues, product description, Story
#1 by D. R. Schryer on March 15, 2010 - 2:12 pm
It is unfortunate that the awesome power of vitamin C to fight infectious diseases — including influenza and the common cold — was not known in 1918. Many thousands of lives could have been saved if vitamin C had been readily available as it is now.
Unfortunately, the power of vitamin C to fight influenza is still not acknowledged by the orthodox medical establishment, even though numerous published scientific studies have shown vitamin C, at adequate doses, to be very powerful at killing viruses and, thus, protecting us from their ill effects. One reason for this misunderstanding is that the orthodox medical establishment considers only about 90 mg of vitamin C daily to be needed by humans, and this dosage will not fight influenza. However, the actual dosage of vitamin C most humans need is at least 2,000 mg each day under normal conditions and much higher amounts when an infection starts to occur.
For those who are willing to consider the benefits of vitamin C and other nutrients in fighting illness, I recommend the book How to Feel Better and Live Longer by Dr. Linus Pauling, the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Charles Lawson on March 15, 2010 - 3:58 pm
Not near enough information about what a consumer could or should do to help themselves. I didn’t realize this was a puff piece for the medical profession.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by R. Barry on March 15, 2010 - 6:57 pm
Well written and well researched. The book reads like a thriller. It documents the beginnings of the pandemic, the state of medicine and research at the time and the societal, medical and political responses to the threat.
Extremely informative with a currency that doesn’t fade with time.
Rating: 2 / 5
#4 by Avid Reader on March 15, 2010 - 9:52 pm
The one thing that is false in this book even though it claims to have a lot of facts, is that it says the influenza caused panic among the citizens. In fact, it didn’t cause “panic.” If you can imagine that in 1918 there was little communication between cities and people were dying but other cities didn’t even know about it until months later.
If you were to read A Bird Named Enza by Dawn Meier you would find out that not only was there no panic but people were marvelous heroes and didn’t run into the streets or commit suicide, but tried to help one another in a situation that was completely foreign to each citizen.
Don’t read this book as fact, it is just like a lot of other books in that it is gleaming a bunch of “facts” and saying it is true.
A Bird Named Enza is a first-hand account of someone who lived through the influenza. Not a bunch of historical “facts” from some library.
A BIRD NAMED ENZA
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by Delissca Belleville on March 16, 2010 - 12:27 am
If I were sick, it would be an explanation as to why I bought this piece of crap!
If I had wanted a history lesson on all of the doctors of the 15th century through today, I’d have looked for one to buy. This is a boring and complicated read about early times in medicine period.
I’m over 1/4 way through this horrible book and have not even gotten to any flu issues yet. This is so boring, that I’ve resulted to speed reading just to get through it. What a waste of money! If I could have given it 1/2 star or none, I’d have done so.
DO NOT BUY IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT THE FLU EPIDEMIC OF 1917.
Rating: 1 / 5