A photo of an Awake magazine which is the official informational piece published by the Jehovah Witness had surfaced online. Inside of it was a journal of research on health.
According to the article “The Next Global Epidemic, WHEN?” published in the December 22, 2005, edition of Awake!, the world was alerted that a pandemic virus might emerge in China or a nearby country in the future.
It also warned that it might emanate from an animal and could surface from antigens or virulence factors derived from animal influenza viruses.
The prediction, seen by some analysts as opportunistic, came two years after the end of another pandemic virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak that started in November 2002.
True to this prediction, the influenza pandemic began in China, from where it has spread to other parts of the world. And according to the warning, even with its huge economic base, China has not been able to cope adequately with the sensor health care services.
Perhaps the whole world would not have been in this precarious situation it finds itself now, if governments, medical experts, health care providers and bodies like the World Health Organization, WHO, had taken seriously the warning sounded by the Awake! magazine and took proactive steps to nip it in the board.
Awake!, a quarterly magazine published by the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, is the second most widely circulated magazine in the world, after its sister publication, The Watchtower, with a total circulation of 93,354,000 copies in 222 languages of each edition. It is renowned for its in-depth and accuracy in research on whichever subject it decides to delve into.
