I genuinely love this kind of articles, animated and full of information. This is particularly interesting because it’s about the last 1000 years of pandemics for humanity and what happened with them.
I, for one, didn’t know the bubonic plague still kills people now (even if not a lot, sure) and that smallpox is the biggest ever success for vaccines, since it is the only human disease completely eradicated.
And as the eradication of smallpox proved, when the world’s scientific community comes together, great things are possible.
Although the new coronavirus is a much trickier challenge, because of its high levels of asymptomatic transmission, Prof Riley is optimistic the “incredible” global quest for a solution will win through.
“The world has never had a shared project like this before,” he says. “Hopefully it becomes a shared success at some point.”
However, it may serve us well to remember that most of the pathogens that rampaged through societies in pandemics in the past are still around. While the crises ended, the viruses and bacteria – and their resulting infections – remain.
From here: Covid-19: How do pandemics end? – BBC News.
