May 2020
COMMUNITY NEWS
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History of pandemics
by Paul Reid Well folks, with COVID-19 on everyone’s brain, I thought it would be fitting to go in search of some interesting and perhaps comforting information on the subject. From the internet I found this very imformative graphic that clearly illustrates the timeline and size of world pandemics over the past 2,000 years. At the time that this graphic was created, on April 23, the death toll from COVID-19 around the world was 185,500 and counting. That is the bad news. On the bright side, we can clearly see from this graphic that we have endured much harsher pandemics in the past. The grand daddy of pandemics was the bubonic plague that lasted from 1347 to 1351. Over 200 million people died, nearly half of all Europeans. A lot of us knew about that one, but just look how many there have been, and how deadly. Okay, perhaps that’s not so comforting, because we just don’t yet know how out of control COVID-19 could become. That is why it will be important to practice social distancing for months to come - not only until we in B.C. get things under control, but until the world gets this under control.
Throughout history, as humans spread across the world, infectious diseases have been a constant companion. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant. Here are some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to COVID-19. Source: Visual Capitalist
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We need to heed the warnings from the past. During the Spanish Flu, on November 11 of 1918, the end of the war had people celebrating with parades and large parties. This caused a rebirth of the epidemic in some cities and that winter millions were infected and thousands died.
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