It's striking that Native Americans evolved no devastating epidemic diseases to give to Europeans, in return for the many devastating epidemic diseases that Indians received from the Old World.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Infectious diseases introduced with Europeans, like smallpox and measles, spread from one Indian tribe to another, far in advance of Europeans themselves, and killed an estimated 95% of the New World's Indian population.
Measles and TB evolved from diseases of our cattle, influenza from a disease of pigs, and smallpox possibly from a disease of camels. The Americas had very few native domesticated animal species from which humans could acquire such diseases.
Great Britain had a much different situation than we do and did here in the United States, in that they had literally thousands of infected animals with human health risks. Their infectivity in this disease happened before very much was known about it.
Smallpox was the worst disease in history. It killed more people than all the wars in history.
If you find diseases before they've really emerged, you can control them early on, before you get a major epidemic.
Being a foreigner is not a disease.
People are beginning to understand there is nothing in the world so remote that it can't impact you as a person. It's not just diseases. Economists are now beginning to say if we are going to have good markets in Africa, we're going to have to have healthy people in Africa.
The diseases of the present have little in common with the diseases of the past save that we die of them.
So much of what we are currently seeing as far as human suffering and misery comes from diseases that should have been preventable but were not.
We've all learned about this disease since it was first discovered several years ago in Europe. And so I think we've learned from the European experience.
No opposing quotes found.