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Third Ultimate Gift: We Live Vigorously, Well Past 100
Chapter Five
Third Ultimate Gift:
We Live Vigorously, Well Past 100
"It is not just new viruses that have doctors worried. Perhaps the most ominous prospect of all is a virulent strain of influenza. Every so often, a highly lethal strain emerges. Unlike HIV, flu moves through the air and is highly contagious. The last killer strain showed up in 1918 and claimed 20 million lives -- more than all the combat deaths in World War I. And that was before global air travel; the next outbreak could be even more devastating."
--Time Magazine
By now during my first encounter with God-Man, the images centered more and more around our health. More than anything else at century end, the people cried out for the geniuses, with their great technologies, to eradicate a frightening number of new virulent diseases.
Devastating new diseases were on the rise and, perhaps even worse, drug-resistant strains of several old killer diseases were back. Those frightening new diseases quickly scared our bicameral urges for higher "authorities" (such as the FDA that blocked the advancement of both Neo-Tech and Neothink geniuses) completely out of us. Our survival depended on Neo-Tech.
During the close of the 20th century, doctors were less and less able to cope with infectious diseases that achieved resistance to antibiotics. We were thrown back toward an ancient world in which common infections, once again, could kill us.
First, only a single antibiotic could still stop a popular strain of staph infection that commonly spread throughout hospitals. But when that lone remaining antibiotic ceased to work, a few years later, hospitals became risky places to visit. Similarly, the common strep infection also gained resistance to antibiotics. You and your children lived in increasing danger. A killer disease, tuberculosis, returned, this time to our schools, and this time even a combination of antibiotics could not stop it.
In short, infectious diseases caught up with modern medicine. In the final year of the 20th century, Americans suffered epidemics not seen in modern times. As you may now realize, higher "authorities" like the FDA blocked a major medical revolution that would have been similar to the explosive computer revolution and would have prevented those deadly epidemics. Before the epidemics began, a Time Magazine cover story warned: "The cost of doing nothing will be millions of lives." Unfortunately, that warning was right. Millions died. Here is a brief review of that futile Time Magazine warning.
Killers All Around
New Viruses and Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Are Reversing
Human Victories Over Infectious Disease
(A Review of Time Magazine Cover Story)
The Time Magazine cover story appeared in the final years of the 20th century. It began by reminding us how, not long ago, humanity thought that infectious diseases were rapidly becoming a thing of the past. In the 1970s, the medical world started boasting its imminent victory. And why not? Previously deadly illnesses such as polio, small pox, malaria, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus "seemed like quaint reminders of a bygone era, like Model T Fords or silent movies". And antibiotics transformed the most terrifying diseases known to mankind such as tuberculosis, syphilis, pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, and even bubonic plague into "mere inconveniences that if caught could be cured with pills or shots". Medical students were being told not to go into infectious disease, a "declining speciality". Instead, they were advised to concentrate on "real problems" like cancer and heart disease.
But, unfortunately, that era of great medical success and confidence was rapidly giving way to a new era of medical defeat and fear. The Time cover story stated, "The question ceased to be, When will infectious disease be wiped out? and became, Where will the next deadly new plague appear?" The article went on to tell us about new lethal agents emerging in Africa and South America. As population grew and man settled new parts of the world, like a new part of the Brazilian rain forest, for example, new deadly diseases spread from other animals such as monkeys to humans. As those deadly agents adapted to humans, they gained the potential for large-scale deadly pandemics. In a world of extensive air travel, those deadly agents became just a plane ride from America.
And it would get worse, the timely article claimed. Antibiotics were our main defense that stood between us and some of the most deadly bacterial diseases. But bacteria had been evolving and steadily adapting for survival, and now they were well adapting to antibiotics. Very rapidly. In fact, the article warned us that every disease known to man was already resistant to antibiotics of one form or another. Several "outdated", once devastating illnesses were back and on the rise: malaria, cholera, measles, tuberculosis, even bubonic plague. Perhaps even more threatening were the "seemingly prosaic but once deadly infections" staph and strep. By the time of the article, they had become much harder to treat. Both spread through the cleanest of hospitals, cured routinely with antibiotics. But as these two infections developed universal resistance, the article questioned, what would happen to our hospitals?
"One of medicine's worst nightmares is the development of a drug-resistant strain of severe invasive strep A," the article stated. Severe, invasive strep A killed Muppeteer Jim Henson in 1990; this vicious killer was on the rise.
Bacteria adapted to antibiotics because, while rapidly multiplying, bacteria mutated and changed slightly, just enough to have outwitted their combatant drugs.
Viruses, on the other hand, were usually tamed and sometimes even eradicated by the preventive vaccine. But the article pointed out that new viruses kept emerging. Viruses that had gone undetected, inhabiting animal populations, could and did make the jump to humans. The Time article told us that was the case with some very lethal new African viruses such as Ebola, which made the jump from monkeys to humans.
Still, the biggest fear of all, as explained in that late-20th-century Time Magazine article, would be another killer flu, which usually made the jump from another animal to humans. Humans had little defense against such a flu, and if it took hold, then it would wreak deadly havoc. The 1997-1998 Hong Kong "chicken flu" introduced such a killer flu that tragically killed a few people in Hong Kong, but fortunately, did not take hold and go into a widespread outbreak. When a global outbreak does happen, the world will never be the same.
After we were safely in the Neo-Tech World, we became very sad while looking back at such Time Magazine articles and others that tried to warn us. When the human catastrophes began, many of us lost some of our very own loved ones, including our own children and grandchildren. A definitive antidote, however, rose rather quickly to our rescue. The only antidote to the human catastrophes was: super rapidly advancing new technologies (Neo-Tech). Only super rapidly advancing new technologies (Neo-Tech) could win the race against super rapidly evolving infectious diseases, which had outpaced our vaccines and antibiotics.
As repeatedly warned throughout late 20th-century national media like Time Magazine, we were suddenly losing the race against infectious diseases, with mutant strains of old diseases returning after decades of "absence" and new diseases invading us with sudden terror. The media warned that a medical defeat to microbes would bring with it human catastrophes like those experienced in the time of bubonic plague, polio, and killer flus like that in 1918 that infected over one billion people, half the world's population in 1918, and killed over 20 million people in 10 months. Never in the history of the world had there been so many deaths in such a short period of time. Man had never experienced anything close to that catastrophic pandemic since, but in the late 20th century, scientists feared a repeat was not far in coming.
The 1918 Spanish Flu, as it was often called, actually started right here in the United States and infected 25% of our population and killed one out of every 50 infected Americans. Scientists and doctors said in the 1990s that logistically "we were due" for another killer strain. In fact, in 1976, we survived a great scare -- a false alarm, or perhaps more apropos, a fair warning: A soldier at Fort Dix, New Jersey got the flu and died. The medical world was stunned when the virus taken from the dead soldier was a descendent of the 1918 killer flu. The medical world braced itself for another catastrophe of unthinkable proportions. But by the grace of God, the deadly swine-flu virus that made the jump from pigs to humans was an isolated case unable, this time, of passing among humans. This time, we were lucky. Next time...
Only super rapidly advancing new technology could prevent a "next time". The race was on. The new technology of genetic engineering had the potential to permanently and universally stop deadly viruses and bacteria. The problem with this promising new technology in the late 20th century, however, was that it was not super rapidly advancing. Remember, Neo-Tech is super rapidly advancing new technology. Simply put, the way things were in the late 20th century, we would lose the race and live to experience great human catastrophes. For a computerlike medical revolution to happen, the hierarchy of authorities, which included the FDA, would have to come down in order to spring loose the geniuses of society and their new technologies. ...The threat of survival helped human nature suddenly mature and lose its bicameral relationship with higher "authorities".
The following brief review from the same issue of Time Magazine tells of new technologies pursued in the late 20th century by doctors, scientists, and businessmen (but again, missing the key ingredient of super rapidly advancing):
Counterattack:
How Drugmakers Are Fighting Back
(A Review of Time Magazine Article)
"Doctors and the public were not alone in feeling cocky about infectious disease a decade ago. The drug companies did too," so began the article. "More than 100 antibiotics were on the market, and they had most bacterial diseases on the run, if not on the verge of eradication." The pharmaceutical industry simply modified existing antibiotics to stay one step ahead of the bacteria. But that approach no longer worked. So, researchers were turning to new technologies to get back in the lead against disease.
One dynamic approach was called "rational" drug design. Scientists studied the molecular structure of a bacterium, particularly the active site of the enzyme used by the bacterium to fight off the antibiotic. Next, scientists attempted to design a molecule to "plug up" the active site of that enzyme. Without the effect of that enzyme, the bacterium would once again be killed by the original drug.
A similar concept was being pursued against viruses. You see, viruses caused their destruction by invading our bodies' living cells. To invade a living cell involved receptor sites, like little hooks, where the virus joined the cell. Similarly, a molecule could be designed to block the receptor sites so the virus never attached to our cells thus remained harmless to our bodies. ...So went the search for such defendant molecules through combinatorial chemistry.
Again, the problem with such new medical technologies in the late 20th century was that they were not super rapidly advancing...not like they should have been, not like, say, computer technology. How, then, did our country finally get medical technology to super rapidly advance to stop the human catastrophes in which some of your very own loved ones possibly died?
The Great Rescue
As I witnessed during the Third Vision, the catastrophes forced us to see reality and depoliticize our country. Two things happened by depoliticizing medicine that seemed like godsends to the frightened people: 1) private research funds came pouring into medical research, and 2) endless entrepreneurial energy and creativity came pouring into medical research. The geniuses of society were free to drive the unburdened technologies into unimaginable new dimensions that eradicated the most complex diseases. In short, Neothink drove Neo-Tech to save our lives. If not for depoliticizing medicine, then many tens of millions would have died.
In the late 20th century, under the old code of rulers and external "authorities", each added increment of politicizing the medical industry further bureaucratized and slowed advancing new medical technology, which in turn dramatically drove away private research funds. Everything became too inefficient and cost-prohibitive for businesses to invest. Moreover, the lone entrepreneurs, those aggressive geniuses of society, could never function in such a cost-prohibitive, risky environment. Their genius and endless energy that so propelled the free computer/cyberspace industry never entered the politicized medical industry. They were needed to unlock the cures to the most complex diseases. Those geniuses, once they were free to flourish under the new code of freedom and Neothink, rapidly unlocked otherwise impossible combinations.
Politicization was the devil's trickery on Earth -- a mutation of the bicameral mentality literally ravaging the health of conscious man -- causing the Great Sin that cost us millions of precious lives. Each incremental step the other way -- depoliticizing the medical industry -- dramatically freed up thus sped up advancing technology, which in turn dramatically attracted private research funds and, like a godsend, opened up the medical industry to the entrepreneurs and their endless energy and drive, their genius, their speed and agility to ferret out brilliant advances.
In the Third Vision, I witnessed that sometime in the next millennium we outgrew our desire to be ruled over and took away our politicians' and bureaucrats' corrupt ruling powers. When people began dying in increasing numbers, we depoliticized the medical industry to make it as free as the computer industry. Survival pressures helped push us from our mysticisms and bicameral mentalities. Soon under the new code, the geniuses did to medicine what they first did to computers. Our country won this race against the microbes, and the geniuses made life safe for us and our loved ones. But the losses were never forgotten.
After 2001, after depoliticizing the medical industry, more and more geniuses rose up and waved through that industry the wand of Neo-Tech -- super rapidly advancing new technologies. Neo-Tech saved us from apocalyptic human catastrophes, which became known as the Great Rescue.
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