Pandemic flu virus.
I often end up on the CDC website (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) when researching information. And no, I am not looking up how people die merely because I regularly get solicited to plan my funeral. This government agency has an unbelievable amount of information on diseases, emergencies, healthy living, public health risks, statistics on how people die and from what in demographic groups of all kinds, and surveillance of diseases. How it’s collected, reported, mined, stored. They also have information on global health and diseases. After all, Earth is as global society now, people travel all over the planet. Commercial flights to the moon, comets and space will soon become common-place.
I get about a dozen story ideas every time I land on that site and snoop around on it.
The emergency preparedness section alone grabs your attention. Want to know about Chemical Emergencies, Radiation Emergencies, Bio-terrorism, Pandemics and Natural Disasters? You came to the right place. They have anything you can ever want to know about these topics. Plus you can pick what level of intelligence you want to read all about it.
What if your spaceman gets sick or is missing some of the microcosm that live on our bodies? Something like discovering how the early seafarers needed vitamin C or they got sick and their wounds opened up, teeth fell out, sick. Now what? What about Terra formed planets? How will humans react to a unique environment, again missing the microcosm that helps keep us healthy? How about our colonists on Jupiter, an outbreak of something, how soon will everyone be sick and will they ever recover? What about a new type of radiation? What is that going to do? Mutations or kill off the tribe. Now if we have cyborg sentient beings, they may have a completely different set of diseases or immunity. Remember “War of the Worlds” – simple bacteria killed the invaders. What if the data mining showed some outbreak or medical threat to a certain demographic that didn’t really exist? A manipulation conspiracy? Genetic engineering of humans? Pretty diabolical!
Our taxes pay for this. Use it! I’m usually not a “ra-ra” person for large government bureaucracies. They often start out as a good idea and frequently let us down. After all – agencies are mere people with all their idiosyncrasies and failings. Usually over money and power. That’s a well mined story idea too. I have been on the planet long enough to have an opinion about this!
But if you are staring at a blank piece of paper or blank screen, try looking for fresh story ideas that involve diseases, cures, statistics, emergencies, and high tech surveillance within this terrific stash of information. They have awesome pictures,too.
And the link is: https://www.cdc.gov/
