Avian Flu (2006) - No confirmed deaths in the West from the avian flu.
Mad Cow Disease (1993 -peak) - NO DEATHS - Strong evidence indicates that classic BSE has been transmitted to people primarily in the United Kingdom, causing a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). In the United Kingdom, where over 1 million cattle may have been infected with classic BSE, a substantial species barrier appears to protect people from widespread illness. Since vCJD was first reported in 1996, a total of only 231 patients with this disease, including 3 secondary, blood transfusion-related cases, have been reported worldwide. The risk to human health from BSE in the United States is extremely low.
Oh yeah! Lest we forget...Y2K! OMG! (Thanks, Marie!)
WHY don't we hear about these things?
2016 - Of the 10,497 people who died in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2016, there were 6,479 drivers (62%) who had BACs of .08 g/dL or higher. The remaining fatalities consisted of 3,070 motor vehicle occupants (29%) and 948 nonoccupants (9%). The distribution of fatalities in these crashes by role is shown in Table 1.
2015 - Of the 10,265 people who died in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2015, there were 6,424 drivers(63%) who had BACs of .08 g/dL or higher. The remaining fatalities consisted of 2,908 motor vehicle occupants (28%) and 933 nonoccupants (9%). The distribution of fatalities in these crashes by role is shown in Table 1. (link is to a PDF that wants to download)
HPV - Depending on which website you access, there are somewhere around 80 to 100 strains of HPV of which several are recognized as "high-risk" for various forms of cancer. The CDC acknowledges that HPV is so common throughout the populous that it is beyond epidemic. Although the virus is purported to resolve within two years asymptomatically, I know of two people who have undergone treatment for cancer and/or are receiving treatment for a pre-cancerous condition. There is no diagnostic for males; they have developed a means of detecting the virus in women.
In addition, the CDC recommends all children approaching puberty and up to the age of 21 be vaccinated against the virus. (I've undertaken the anthropological study and have, for the last eight months, been asking people at random if they heard from their children's school nurse about the vaccine; none have.)
It is apparently of enough concern that it was mentioned in a one-sentence remark by Paul Stamets in Fantastic Fungi. He commented that a strain of mycelium may offer curative opportunities.
