Figure 18: Historical Epidemics and Cultural Mentions

Figure $18 1e-5 & 8 - —— - B 4.0 — fever —— diabetes — cancer =~ obesity 6 — asthma — _ heart attack iS —— tuberculosis = rs) o cS c ro) oO =| =] log low ® ® & <4 we Te 0 0. 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Year Year — cholera infantile paralysis Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1.55 polio vaccine 1 > > is) is) c c ® () 3 1.0 = lou low £ 2 re Ww 0.5 0.0 = : ~ 0.0 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 Year Year Fig. $18. Tracking historical epidemics using their influence on the surrounding culture. (A) Usage frequency of various diseases: ‘fever’ (blue), ‘cancer’ (green), ‘asthma’ (red), ‘tuberculosis’ (cyan), ‘diabetes’ (purple), ‘obesity’ (yellow) and ‘heart attack’ (black). (B) Cultural prevalence of AIDS and HIV. We highlight the year 1983 when the viral agent was discovered. (C) Usage of the term ‘cholera’ peaks during the cholera epidemics that affected Europe and the US (blue shading). (D) Usage of the term ‘infantile paralysis’ (blue) exhibits one peak during the 1916 polio epidemic (blue shading), and a second around the time of a series of polio epidemics that took place during the early 1950s. But the second peak is anomalously broad. Discussion of polio during that time may have been fueled by the election of ‘Franklin Delano Roosevelt’ (green), who had been paralyzed by polio in 1936 (green shading), as well as by the development of the ‘polio vaccine’ (red) in 1952. The vaccine ultimately eradicated ‘infantile paralysis’ in the United States. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017057