[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

Food for thought: has any government ended any pandemic mostly with its tactics as opposed to pandemics primarily ending on their own?

The 1918 flu: After about one-third of the global population became infected and roughly 50 million people died, the virus ran out of steam. Those who survived had immunity, and the virus gained mutations that made it less virulent. Descendants of the pandemic strain are still with us today.

Polio: was eradicated in the U.S. by 1979, with the help of the vaccine invented by Jonas Salk.

Smallpox: Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine in England in 1796, and vaccines ultimately spread around the globe. In 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.

HIV/AIDS: Deaths peaked in 1995 at about 50,000, then decreased steadily thanks to two things: effective prevention measures and new medications that are capable of knocking back the virus to undetectable levels. Work continues on an HIV vaccine.

SARS: A total of 8,098 people became infected worldwide during the 2002-2003 outbreak, and 774 died. SARS stopped spreading before scientists had a chance to create treatments or vaccines.

H1N1 flu: Existing medicines, including Tamiflu, were still largely effective, and it took about six months to ready a vaccine targeted to the new strain. The pandemic was declared over in August 2010, but versions of the flu are still among us.

Coronavirus Today: How past pandemics came to an end:
https://www.latimes.com/science/news...onavirus-today