Pandemics: The Black Death Epidemic

Pandemic. Seems like a simple concept, doesn’t it? Just eight little letters. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines it as an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people. (Epidemic Disease Occurrence, 2012) However, something that seems fairly simple might not actually be. A pandemic is one of the scariest things to imagine. It is an outbreak of some sort of disease process infecting and killing thousands or even millions of people before a cure can be discovered. One of the deadliest pandemics, the Black Death, killed an estimated upwards of 50 million people back in the 1300s in Asia and Europe. (Benedictow, 2005) This sparks a good and interesting question. What would we
It starts on a beach in Australia as two young surfers say their goodbyes. As 19-year-old Ames Smith is about to leave for the airport to hop on a plane back to Los Angeles, he winds up contracting a new strain of the flu from his friend who got it from the dead birds scattered about the beach. Unbeknownst to him, he winds up infecting most of the other passengers on his flight. As he goes into respiratory distress and starts coughing up blood, the stewardess calls the CDC to inform them of the situation. Ames eventually passes away while still in flight. In order to keep the mysterious illness contained until they can study and identify it, the CDC orders the plane to land on a secure runway at LAX. While they are leading the passengers to a bus that will take them to a secure location, one of the passengers escapes. His actions cause a chain reaction of catastrophic
Area One is where anyone who hadn’t been exposed stayed. Area Two is for the people who had been exposed, but hadn’t had any symptoms. Area Three is for the people who were definitely sick because they were exposed and were showing symptoms. While the federal government gives the CDC their authority, the state, local, and tribal authorities also has power in situations like these. (Legal Authorities for Isolation and Quarantine, 2014) During an outbreak, a necessity for precaution might be quarantine. The CDC says that quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. (Quarantine and Isolation,