Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in the US have found that the viruses triggering the three most lethal viral pandemics of the 20th century circulated in their near-complete form for years before reaching catastrophic levels.

For instance, the 1918 pandemic began when two separate H1N1 viruses were dispersed at the same time: the seasonal human flu and the H1N1 in pigs. These then merged and mutated by swapping genetic material, which infected millions and caused a full six percent of the global human population to perish.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr. Guan Yi explained that the predecessor genes to the 1918 virus most likely were circulating as early as 1911, and that both the 1918 H1N1 and the 1957 “Asian” H2N2 viruses went through two rounds of swapping genetic material before becoming highly deadly, with the latter claiming several million lives. Although unofficial statistics may be as much as ten times higher, official estimates for those infected by the current swine flu are 136,432 afflicted across 137 countries, with 765 fatalities.

If the cruelly cramped and utterly filthy factory farms where such viruses originate are eliminated, these large scale pandemics would be far less likely to occur. In a vision of the healthy and carefree world that could exist for us all, the tropical southern Bahamas is a place where the wild relatives of farmed pigs co-exist in harmony and mutual joy with the locals, who have been feeding them for years, as well as tourists, who are delighted to see the pigs swim to greet them in the clear sea.