Epedemic Intro: Kierra Stearns

According to the American Association of Pediatrics "Binge drinking is the most common pattern of alcohol consumption among high school youth who drink alcohol and is strongly associated with a wide range of other health risk behaviors"( Smith, Naimi, et al 1 ). Binge drinking can be defined as drinking five or more drinks during one occasion ( Smith, Naimi, et al 1 ). Binge drinking is absurd because it lowers your quality of health. Most teens and young college students don't even know that five or more drinks is considered binge drinking because it's so common in today's society, overall binge drinking is a maximizing epidemic. 

SMALLPOX of 1519 by Colby Harbuck

SMALLPOX OF 1519

            Ever noticed your face breaking out really bad and really suddenly? Your mom probably lectured you on washing your face better or not eating so many sweets. The next few days your arms get these red spots too and once again it’s “your fault for not taking care of your body.” But have no fear, it’s not your fault at all! Instead you've the lucky winner of this great, powerful, and deadly disease: Smallpox! Now maybe you didn't know, but you've actually already had this prestigious epidemic for close to 5 days(Dixon)! In less than a week those pimples are going to turn into very large scabs. If they eventually fall off then it’s ok (CDC)! But have no fear, if they don’t, you have at least three more weeks to live! You’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii right?

            Speaking of Smallpox, I once had a personal experience with this horrible epidemic. It all started for her that cold December day. It was the last day before Christmas break was to start and who really pays attention to the teacher on that day? Poor old Mrs. Wright was trying so hard to keep her students entertained: “It was 1518. Hernando Cortez was a thriving, but young conquistador. He was very courageous and successful, but feared by many with a lot of money who could give him financial backing in order to send him to new lands(Kukaswadia, Atif). In his past, Cortez had taken more than his fair share of his findings and owed numerous people. At this point he was trying to arrange his biggest haul of them all. He had a boat, with nearly 300 people, horses, and supplies ready to set sail to the America’s. Suddenly, he was convicted of many crimes and was going to be thrown in jail or sent to Spain(History.com Staff). He had to act quickly, and without the King’s permission he quickly gathered up his few things and set sail.  

        He was chased by several of the king’s officials, but once they hit open sea there was no catching them. Unfortunately for over 20 million Aztecs living happily in Mexico City, Cortez was coming, with soldiers, guns, and one more secret weapon even he didn't know he possessed… Germs…       Eww germs(Kukaswadia, A)!!”        

            Just stop Mrs. Wright. I was desperately praying that the old lady would just shut up and let us all sleep.

            “No, not like that,” Mrs. Wright continued. “These aren't the germs you get from a girl when you are in Kindergarten. These germs were dangerous. And, it wasn't your average flu germs either. No, these germs were VERY potent. It was as if the conquistadors had gotten a mad scientist to create an almost toxic smog to release over the city, similar to what happens in hero/villain movies, but in reality they had done nothing but show up. The Aztecs themselves killed themselves by spreading the disease. All could have been stopped if they had kept the sick isolated from the healthy population(Finner). The Spanish’s appearance alone brought about the death of over 20 million people(AZTEC-HISTORY.COM Authors). Talk about an appearance.”

            Wow, now this is a super boring. Honestly, who even cares about this stuff? Then, suddenly, I drifted off into a quite nice nap, one that everyone seems to take in their average high school history classes…

            “Commander, your troops await your orders. We need them now! You know who is coming. We must prepare immediately!”

             Pause. Now, lets all think for a minute. What would you do if suddenly you woke up, has crazy markings all over your body, and someone called you “commander”? Probably think you're dreaming, right? See, that is what is supposed to happen, and maybe I thought that for a few seconds, but being called “Commander” took over really fast. So much power with that one word. This was going to be totally awesome!

            Ok, resume back to story. Immediately, I knew I had to figure some really significant facts out: who is this person that is coming, why am I here, and, lastly, but most importantly, what are the chances I can make these people do the whip and nae nae?

            Now, to save you from the boring part of me finding out all of those things, I will skip forward a few weeks to after Hernando Cortez (totally not the person we were expecting) showed up. Oh, and, by the way, I totally taught them how to do the whip and nae nae. I just so happened to be the commander of the entire Aztec army. When I say jump, they ask how high.

            We have been under siege from this strange group of people for three weeks now. All seven of my wives have full confidence in my army’s ability to defeat these peoples who come from far away. Yes, they have many new weapons of destruction but we have the advantage of numbers.

            Taylor, one of our brightest doctors, who did I mention is also the most beautiful girl in our tribe, which I plan to make my wife one day, has made me aware that many of my uninjured troops have fallen ill. But, this is no problem for us. We still have thousands of people. And, luckily, we have so many new medical procedures to help these sickened people.

              The first thing we will do is parade the sick around town on the first night of the full moon. One of our traditions to help the sick is to get every single healthy person to kiss the sick. We do this to share our health, which the great god Apollo has given us. After that, we will invite them to stay with us in our homes. We shall nurse them back to health!

            As you can tell, I have learned a great deal of information in these last three weeks about the Aztecs. At first, I thought that the idea of kissing the sick was a bad idea. Mrs. Wright had said something about keeping the sick in isolation or something, but, honestly, I wasn't really paying attention anyway, so I am not sure. Was she talking about the Aztecs? Quite honestly, she could have been talking about some people in Alaska, but how the heck am I supposed to know? I was too busy thinking about the cute girl I was going to get to see in sixth period.

            As the weeks went on, many more of us got sick. Even the beautiful and genius Taylor couldn't figure out what was going wrong. The most perplexing thing was none of the Spanish people seemed to get sick. Many of my friends seemed to believe they had brought a god with them to keep them safe. A god that was much more powerful than our Apollo. The attacks from them became fewer and fewer. We had to retreat from our lands because we did not have enough people in order to stay. The Spanish got exactly what they were wanting, and they didn't have to do anything. How could this be happening? None of them were as fierce or brave as my soldiers were. They did their killing with these hard, loud devices. Cowards, I say! My soldiers fought with their hand like real mean do!

            We continued this trend for nearly a year. At this point, we realized this disease, which had killed 75% of our tribe, was due to the Spanish. They had definitely brought dark magic with them. They had killed our god, Apollo. No matter how many people we sacrificed, we received no response from him. That was a very sad day for my tribe when we learned of his assassination. Soon, the Spanish would take everything from us, and we would all die…

            Unfortunately, I woke up, and realized I was back in Mrs. Wright’s class. And, dang, I still have thirteen more minutes in this prison!

            “And remember people, if there is a break out of a disease, ALWAYS keeps the sick isolated.”

            I began to think about my dream. Crap, I thought. I was a horrible commander. I should have known it was silly to go around having everyone kiss the sick bodies. I quickly realized the only possible solution to this epidemic, at that time in 1519, was isolation. There was no such thing as medication back then. Ok, yes, they drank those weird blood and fruit and water mixtures and called it medicine, but in reality, they had no medical technology at all.

            But how possible would have it been to keep those people isolated? The first problem would be where would have the sick gone? And, they would have had to agree to uproot themselves from their lives, leaving everything behind. Then, what about figuring out how they would all go to the same spot. The iPhone is still 500 years away from being invented, and I doubt people had their own GPS back then. Next, they would have to find a way to determine who was actually sick with the epidemic and who was just feeling under the weather. They would have to know immediately in order to get them out of town before others got sick.  And then the huge pressing issue: they are being invaded by Spanish soldiers. If everyone left to go into isolation, who would be left to protect their lands?

            With these problems, and other unnamed and unknown problems in avoiding this disease spread, it is very unlikely that there was a solution to this mass killing. Had this happened in today’s world, there is a possibility that it could have been stopped, or it could have been much, much worse. There are simply too many variables to know for sure.

            Next, for me, came English class.That old man, Mr. Rangel, was ranting on and on about some person named Camus. I realized that Camus believed no one is really truly living(Simpson). They all just go about their lives, not noticing anything is happening until something catastrophic happens. Then, when that big event occurs, everyone freaks out. But still, at this point, they believe someone else needs to take action. Until it is to the point of no return do they truly wake up and realize what is going on in their lives.

            This can be said true about the Aztecs. They were living their lives, unaware of the death curse that was headed their way. They even celebrated those people as a god because that is what they believed him to be. It was not until people began to die did they realize something was wrong. And, at first, they believed it to only be a small sickness that would go away by kissing each other to share their health. Then as things got out of hand, even the doctors had no idea what to do. Their methods were unable to help them. There was nothing they could do.

             Today’s society must learn from this. It cannot go throughout its life being unprepared for what is to come. There is no way to tell if the next Swine flu is coming. When it appears, there will be no time to scramble to make a serum to cure everyone. Multiple events in history has shown us that no cure to any disease can be whipped up in the matter of days. People complain about their face breaking out, just imagine the massive uproar if people’s faces broke out and then they died from smallpox 2.0. This is why we must heed Camus’ advice. We must wake up! Prepare! And lead ourselves into a more prepared life!

           

                                                                        Works Cited

AZTEC-HISTORY.COM Authors. "The Fall of the Aztec Empire." The Fall of the Aztec Empire. N.p., 2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.aztec-history.com/fall-of-the-aztec-empire.html>.

CDC. "Smallpox Vaccine: What You Need to Know." CDC Smallpox. 15 Nov. 2003. Web. 23 Feb. 2016. <http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/needtoknow.asp>.

Dixon, C.W. "Smallpox. - CAB Direct." Smallpox. - CAB Direct. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts19622702588.html;jsessionid=FB981E12809E D3749232F2131158D845>.

Finner, F. "Smallpox and Its Eradicationcontinued. - CAB Direct." Smallpox and Its Eradicationcontinued. - CAB Direct. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19882049083.html>.

History.com Staff. "Aztecs." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/aztecs>.

Kukaswadia, A. (2013, July 30). What Killed The Aztecs? A Researcher Probes Role of 16th Century Megadrought | Public Health. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/07/30/guest-post-what-killed-the-aztecs/

Kukaswadia, Atif. "What Killed The Aztecs? A Researcher Probes Role of 16th Century Megadrought | Public Health." Public Health. N.p., July 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.   (Updated)

Simpson, David. "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/>.