Some claim the greatest epidemic in human history is the surge in Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in the 20th…

Some claim the greatest epidemic in human history is the surge in Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in the 20th century. Heart disease is (many don’t realise) mostly unknown before that century. This may be an example of the danger of the idea of ‘hybrid immunity’. Short 🧵/1 https://t.co/Bdv9XmnsfS

The CHD epidemic peaked in 1960 and has been in strong decline since. (Using US data here, fairly indicative of most Western countries.) The surge began around 1925. Suspiciously close to the end of the Spanish Flu H1N1 pandemic. Is there a link? /2 https://t.co/Kryp73bXS1

Some researchers believe so. That the CHD epidemic was caused by that flu pandemic, with those infected (including in utero) carrying damage to the heart across the following decades, peaking in the 1960s. And thus in decline since. /3 https://t.co/RlGtaD8R1B

Influenza infection is often used a a model of long-term immunity, with repeated infection (the theory goes) creating population immunity. And hybrid immunity, where the population is vaccinated as well. But if the long-term effects of infection are as or more serious,…/4

…this may be a Pyhrric victory. It also seems suggestive that current research also indicates a strong protective effect from influenza vaccination, for heart disease. /end https://t.co/K7ILiGLHsF

“I think that COVID is setting us up for a hundred years of problems,” predicted Crimmins, who holds the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School. A hundred years.

@YouAreLobbyLud