Chapter 6: American Bicentennial Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 6, two viruses hit the United States, swine flu and Legionnaire disease. The influenza virus developed mutation strategies that made antibodies nearly impossible and in 1918, the worst flu epidemic in the twentieth century struck, killing millions. Richard Shope discovered that the flu lived harmlessly in pig mucus, and thus, the new virus was dubbed swine flu. In 1976, a similar flu struck in the United States in Texas, although simultaneously with another, less deadly strain. The WHO network had previously set up a series of hundreds of labs in an effort to monitor flu strains, and when the virus was also found in New Jersey, the alarm was raised. The CDC and several top scientists, in response to the fear of an epidemic, began to develop a vaccination, and while most of the nation was supportive, there...