Current Events & Trends: Deadly pandemics threaten mankind
Did you know that "sixty per cent of all human infectious diseases are caused by either wild or domestic animals"?
That according to April Dembosky's Financial Times interview with natural history author David Quammen ("The Next Human Pandemic," FT Magazine, Oct. 5, 2012). Quammen warns of future dangers facing humanity in his new book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (2012).
Bryan Appleyard reviewed Quammen's book for The Sunday Times, pointing out, "We live in a world seething with infection, and fast-mutating bugs such as the H5N1 bird flu virus" ("Close Your Mouth the Bugs Are Coming," Sept. 30, 2012). Quammen reiterated several times that we have already experienced a major example of the enormous potential of such viruses. AIDS has killed around 30 million people and infected another 33 million (ibid.).
Quammen, Appleyard states, "is concerned about zoonosis, the phenomenon of infectious diseases that leap from animals to humans—H5N1 comes from birds, Ebola probably from bats via apes, and AIDS most likely from chimps." With more and more air travel, the risk of another major zoonotic outbreak is increasingly possible.
Dembosky quotes from Quammen's book: "There's no reason to assume that Aids will stand unique, in our time, as the only such global disaster caused by a strange microbe emerging from some other animal . . . Some knowledgeable and gloomy prognosticators even speak of the Next Big One as an inevitability."
Her interview-based article also highlights world travel as a potential problem: "Globalisation is a huge factor. As the human population reaches 7 billion, and an increasing number of us travel with greater frequency . . . the potential reach of infectious disease outbreaks has been vastly magnified."
The Bible is not silent about the risks and potential ravages of disease pandemics. Jesus Christ warned of these pestilences (Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11), and they are implicit in Revelation 6 (see our PDF reprint article titled "The Horsemen of Revelation"). (Sources: FT Magazine, The Times [London].)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: November - December 2012
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
