At EWI's Message Board, readers ask us dozens of questions, daily. We try and answer everyone, and the best Q&As we publish for all to see. Here is an interesting question about swine flu that just came in:
Swine Flu: Is Another "Wave" Still Ahead?
-- The Return of the Swine Flu: If one is to look at the swine flu's (or H1N1) initial onset, it could be interpreted as wave 1. Then came the "perceived relief" that the threat was overblown, as wave 2. Now the numbers of infections and deaths are rising, the World Health Organization proclaimed a pandemic and is stating a "deep concern for a mutation and a large number of infections in the U.S. as we enter the fall's normal flu season." Socionomically speaking, are we at the doorstep of wave 3 for this social health emergency?
Responder: The Socionomics Institute. Date: 7/16/2009
-- The 1918 flu, or Spanish flu epidemic, did unfold in three "waves," as Jeffrey Taubenberger noted in "The Mother of All Pandemics." Swine flu could accelerate, but based on the conclusions of our recent historic two-part study "A Socionomic View of Epidemic Disease," we at the Socionomics Institute think it's more likely that a worse epidemic will erupt near or just after the ultimate bottom of the current bear market.
1918 Influenza Pandemic | CDC EID
Taubenberger JK, Morens DM. 1918 influenza: the mother of all pandemics. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2006 Jan [date cited]. ...
Figure 1. Three pandemic waves: weekly combined influenza and pneumonia mortality, United Kingdom, 1918–1919.