S5 E9: Paralysis on Purpose: The Story of Botulism

Mary sent me an email with a news article attached. The article said that 47% of people don’t think that life will ever get back to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic. If you listen to the smallpox episodes, the Spanish flu episode and the polio episode, many of the same things happened that happened during the Covid pandemic. Schools were shut down, social distancing was a thing, people wore masks, they were encouraged to stay home, there was grocery delivery, there were vaccine mandates and there were travel cards. People had to prove that they were vaccinated before they could travel. During the polio epidemic, no one could leave New York City without proof that they had been vaccinated. As I sit here today, the Covid-19 pandemic has had relatively little long term affect on people. We’re no longer wearing masks or social distancing. I haven’t had to show my vaccination card in ages. What it comes down to is this: People as a rule are extremely short-sighted. They don’t see past next week or next month. They think everything is going to last forever. Especially if that thing is something they view as negative. In truth, very few policies surrounding healthcare crises remain permanent. Our society is more concerned with war than public health. This is why 911 caused way more changes to society than Covid-19 ever will. At the end of the day, we’re far more concerned about the cost of rebuilding infrastructure than we are with any sort of human destruction. Even though, human destruction is priceless. Cause of Death has a website! Come visit me at www.causeofdeath100secs.net. I also have an email address for the show at Jackie@causeofdeath100secs.net. Feel free to interact with me in either place! I’m going to be doing a special 100 Seconds to Midnight episode in Season 7. I’d like those of you who had experiences growing up during the Cold War to talk about those experiences. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, I can arrange that. If you’d rather just write your stories and send them in, that’s fine, too. I can read them. These stories are important, and they need to be heard. Please participate if you can. You can reach me on the website at www.causeofdeath100secs.net or you can email me at Jackie@causeofdeath100secs.net. My Link Tree can be found at: https://linktr.ee/CauseofDeathpod Botulism Show Notes: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/325451-overview#:~:text=Botulinum%20toxin%20acts%20by%20binding,toxin%20as%20a%20therapeutic%20tool. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2856357/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8975111/ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/botulism https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB00083 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/11/8/459 https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/definition.html