“Science contributes moral as well as material blessings to the world. Its great moral contribution is objective, or the scientific point of view. The means doubting everything except facts; it means hewing to the facts, lets the chips fall where they may.” (163)…
During a passage from the Great Influenza, author John M. Barry discusses the qualifications a scientific researcher must yield in order to be efficient to the field and perform intelligent guesswork. Appealing to inspiring scientists, Barry insists that they have to “manipulate and even force experiments to yield and answer.” Without the ability to work with uncertainty, no work done will be enough to illuminate the subject. Through juxtaposition uncertainty and certainty in this professional field, Barry showcases the classifications of scientists with analogies and metaphors in a catalogue form. Barry begins by promptly identifying the counter argument; how uncertainty is a weakness for a scientist.…
Barry starts his piece of writing by stating that having plenty of courage and strength can lead to a high creative level. Scientists need to have more certainty within themselves because “uncertainty makes one tentative if not fearful, and tentative steps, even when in the right…
The Spanish Flu of 1918 was an influenza that swept the globe killing more people then World War One, World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. The virus’s victims were between the ages of nineteen and twenty eight, an unusual range compared to expected ages of deaths from a normal flu. The Forsete, a ship that set sail from Norway’s northern coast, was hit with an outbreak of the Spanish Flu on September 21, 1918. Within the next two weeks, seven people died, and were buried in Longyearbyen, the arrival site of the Forsete. Kristy Duncan, a Canadian Geographer, set up an expedition to go to the grave site of these seven men in Longyearbyen. These men may very well be intact, cryogenically preserved, and may still be carrying…
Another reason that the flu had such a severe impact on the U.S. military is because of the way that the military was structured and arranged during World War I. In her article, “The U.S. military and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919”, Carol Byerly gives information about the organization of the military into camps. Byerly uses the example of Camp Devens in Massachusetts to show how seriously the epidemic affected military camps. According to Byerly, the flu spread over the course of only ten days to infect more than 15% of the soldiers stationed there. This was similar to Fort Shelby, where almost every new recruit became sick. Researchers such as Victor C. Vaughan, the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and Rufus Cole,…
The Lewis Thomas Prize winner most certainly took advantage of using his own struggles of understanding science to portray how he isn’t so different from his ordinary readers. “When I came to college from my Ohio home town, the most intellectually unnerving thing I discovered was how wrong many of my assumptions were about how the world works—whether the natural or the human-made world” (Gawande 2). He creates a link between the audience and himself via building a sense of relation in which people will be more…
John M. Barry uncovers the epic story of the horrible pandemic of 1918, one that killed as many as 100 million people across the world. Barry utilizes his journalistic skills and considerable medical research to share the story of the influenza and shed light on those who were caught up in the gruesome fight. The result is an in-depth, incredible narrative of the times and events shaped by the plague.…
In the early years of 1918 through 1920, influenza stormed around the world in the worst pandemic in recorded history, killing at least fifty million people, and more than half a million of them were Americans. Yet, despite the devastation, many groups of people within the United States handed this epidemic very differently from each other. There were differences between “men as well as women, whites as well as people of color, middle and upper classes, as well as the working class…”(Bristow p.9). After all the commotion of this monstrosity, and how it was feared, Americans had also neglected the pandemic and soon erased all events from their memory and history.…
influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.…
Ethos is described as an appeal to ethics, its goal is to persuade the reader that an opinion is correct by showing the credibility of a character, Its often tied to citing figures of authority. For example, if were debating which car is faster car x or car y, a good argument for car x would be that it was stated by a skilled Nascar driver to be one of the fastest cars he’s ever driven. Now let’s analyze a passage from The Abolition of Man.“Perhaps I am asking impossibilities. Perhaps, in the nature of things, analytical understanding must always be a basilisk which kills what it sees and only sees by killing. But if the scientists themselves cannot arrest this process before it reaches the common Reason and kills that too, then someone else…
As the research subject voluntarily or involuntarily enters into the unknown, the doctor must follow in their footsteps, embracing fear and inaccuracy before anything else. Scientific research can be risky for all, but if it is successful, it could mean justice for millions. Not only do the doctors and subjects tip-toe into the void, but the whole world follows behind to watch them fall, get back up -or fail. Scientific research is a tool that can be used to create strength and reliability for the future. As hills are climbed, crests are reached and bigger hills are waiting in the presence, research is present for ranges of world problems. Scientific research can offer a solution to world problems that are both social and medical, thus…
During the year of 1918 the movement of troops during WWI spread the Influenza disease. Influenza arrived in the United States at a perfect timing when there many new forms of transportation, media, consumption and warfare had expanded into public places where diseases could spread more easily. The new forms of transportation really impacted the U.S. and why so many people easily contracted the disease. I will analyze two letters written to friends by a doctor and nurse to show some of the conditions and duties they had to endure during the pandemic of 1918. This letter was written by doctor, N.R. Grist.…
New diseases and pandemics shock government and individuals, and are many times difficult to treat. This remained true in the past, whether it be the Black Death or the Influenza pandemic of 1918, and true today, as examined by governments and society trying to adjust to the new threats of Ebola and Zika. The 1918 influenza pandemic and the current response to Zika can be compared by examining how similar they are in terms of showing how government quarantines can be counter productive and how government actions taken during the flu hurt the Ebola response in the modern world.…
One virus that is widely spread is influenza or known as the flu. Symptoms of this virus are fever, coughing, runny nose, soreness of throat, vomit, and so many more different symptoms.…
In today's world, we would be better suited against a similar epidemic to that of the Spanish Influenza; but it would honestly depend on that said hypothetical virus. Due to our rapidly growing cities and the increase in travel, the virus would be able to spread at a quick pace. If the virus is deadly and spreads quickly in a short amount of time, we would have a better chance of making an antibiotic for it. If the virus beings relatively harmless and slowly spreads, inconspicuously, and then begins to mutate more deadly strains, we would have a lesser chance of fighting it off. With our medical advances, we would be able to fight it off for a while. Although, sooner than later, the virus would begin to adapt to our vaccinations and an arms…