STAT: The last pandemic was a ‘quiet killer.’ Ten years after swine flu, no one can predict the next one
“…[A] decade onward, the experience of H1N1 is a reminder that it’s impossible to know from the get-go how a pandemic will play out. Science currently has no way to predict when pandemics will occur. The fact that there were 41 years between the 1968 pandemic — known as the Hong Kong flu — and the 2009 pandemic doesn’t mean the next will take another 30 years or so to materialize. There is no pattern; flu pandemics happen when they happen, and pandemic planning is ever ongoing…” (Branswell, 6/11).