SLEEPY Sickness Returns!
Wake The IF!
Our listener, and Super IFFer Supreme, Bill from Virginia asks:
“WTIF we saw the return of the mysterious "Sleeping Sickness" that followed the 1918 pandemic?”
Join us as we imagine an outbreak in NEW YORK of this enigmatic pathogen that makes you very, very, very, very, sleepy. Sleepiness attacks THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS! What could possibly go wrong?
Yearning For More Learning?
From WTiF’s Senior Researcher, Gabi Vardanega
Want to learn more about encephalitis lethargica (aka the sleeping sickness)? Read up on this piece published by Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
Learn about the potential routes of transmission from the American Animal Hospital Association.
Scientific American discusses: are viruses alive?
Check out this piece from UCSD Health on how the “sleeping sickness” relates to COVID-19.
Read about the reconstruction of the 1918 influenza pandemic virus from the CDC.
Check out Awakenings on Audible by Oliver Sacks to find out more about the life stories of “sleeping sickness” victims
Got an IF of your own?
Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big!
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Keep On IFFin',
Philip, Matt, Gaby & Gabi