Yet Another Pandemic Thread

I’m sure this sort of thread has been done a million times (both here and elsewhere), but I’ve been thinking about what it’d take for a disease to drive modern society to collapse, or to a bigger extent possibly drive our species to near extinction. What sort of events would have to conspire (alongside symptoms and all that) to genuinely give this disease a fighting chance, and not ending up quarantined and eradicated with in the first infections.
 
There're a number of epidemics that didn't get quarantined - the 1918 and 1976 flu pandemics, as well as more I'm forgetting, spread too quickly before their virulence was known. The 2009 swine flu also came close.

Alternatively, the disease could have a very long incubation period, like HIV. If that somehow started spreading more easily, things could be horrific.
 
Actually there was a good bit of quarantine going on in 1918. American Samoa was spared due to strict quarantine, as were parts of Alaska. There were quarantines to one extent or another throughout the USA, closings of all public venues etc. For a disease to be truly pandemic it needs to be spread easily, airborne is best, and have an incubation period where the disease is transmissable without much in the way of symptoms/prodrome. With a significant incubation time, and current travel around the world...
 
I guess the point is that influenza cannot be quaranteened effectively. Its a good candidate and because we have seen one really bad, and three manegable, the fifth one could be the worst.
 
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