Suddenly, everything changed. No school, concerts, sports, social gatherings, gym, malls, movies, just like that everything is different. Is this indeed a test?
Did you see this coming? Who in their wildest imagination thought that there would be a pandemic that would affect and change the entire world?
What is this?
When an epidemic spreads beyond a country’s borders, it becomes a pandemic, crossing border after border, thus affecting the entire globe.
This is an insert from
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/pandemics-timeline
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 virus was officially a pandemic after barreling through 114 countries in three months and infecting over 118,000 people. And the spread wasn’t anywhere near finished.
COVID-19 is caused by a novel corona virus—a new corona virus strain that has not been previously found in people. Symptoms include respiratory problems, fever and cough, and can lead to pneumonia and death. Like SARS, it’s spread through droplets from sneezes.
The first reported case in China appeared November 17, 2019, in the Hubei Province, but went unrecognized. Eight more cases appeared in December with researchers pointing to an unknown virus.
Many learned about COVID-19-19 when ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang defied government orders and released safety information to other doctors. The following day, China informed WHO and charged Li with a crime. Li died from COVID-19 just over a month later.
Without a vaccine available, the virus spread beyond Chinese borders and by mid-March, it had spread globally to more than 163 countries. On February 11, the infection was officially christened COVID-19.
SOURCES
Disease and History by Frederick C. Cartwright, published by Sutton Publishing, 2014.
Disease: The Story of Disease and Mankind’s Continuing Struggle Against It by Mary Dobson, published by Quercus, 2007.
Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues by Ed, Joseph P. Byrne, published by Greenwood Press, 2008.
Influenza, The American Experience.
Source Book of Medical History, Logan Clendening, published by Dover Publications, 1960.
Please note that there are 195 countries in the world, 163 has been affected in just a few months, WOW!
I was not even familiar with the term pandemic until a couple of months ago, shame, my lack of knowledge!
I now know that the first known pandemic happened as early as 430 BC, Athens. It is suspected to have been typhoid fever.
There have been many more pandemics over the centuries, smallpox, yellow fever, measles, tuberculosis, cholera, polio, flu, Ebola, just to name a few.
This year 2020, a leap year, we are battling the Covid-19 virus, a pandemic. Were we somehow being prepared for this?
This is the first major event in this new decade, which is spreading throughout the world, causing a strong socioeconomic impact on the world.
There has been several things that had an impact on the world, leading up to this time, lets take a look at some very simple everyday things.
- The internet
The internet, at the beginning of 2000, was used mostly for jobs and schools, now just 19 years later, most of the world’s population has access to the internet. Most homes have internet. In 2000, we could not use the internet and our telephone at the same time, now we can access the World Wide Web using many devices at the same time. We can talk and look at each other in real time, where ever we are in the world.
Second hand smoke
Remember, seems like just a few years ago, we had the smoking and non-smoking spaces everywhere, workplace, hospitals, restaurants and so forth, Today we do not worry about second hand smoke so much, smoking is forbidden in almost all public places.
More into television than movies
Blockbuster was the place! There were times we had to get our name on a wait list for a certain movie, waiting for someone who had rented it to return it. Today, we don’t worry about seeing movies because we can load them on our devices and enjoy. No waiting, no more trying to be the early bird in order to be the first to rent out a certain movie, oh boy! What a change.
Information and ordering books
We hardly have a need for phone books anymore, we are able to find phone numbers using our smart phones to google, find and store our phone numbers right there in our smart phones. We have no need for the latest issues of dept store catalogs, we can use our smart phones to access any major dept store and order right there on line, delivered in just a few days.
The world we live in today is completely different from it was at the dawn of the New Millennium. Seems we were being prepared for what we are facing today.
Covid-19, caught most of us unaware. Sick and dying people everywhere. It took a minute for a lot of us to come out of our shocked daze to fully understand the reality of this, all a sudden, massive pandemic, but, thank God we woke up.
Hospitals, of course, swamped. Health care workers hanging in there being our heroes, saving and preserving lives, while putting there own in danger.
Schools, making a way so our children will not miss out on there education, the cafeteria working making sure they continue to eat and the custodians, taking on extra work making sure everything is sanitized and safe, the drivers and delivers, dropping off and delivering the food to areas where they can easily be picked up.
The city planners, making a way to protect the unfortunate ones living in the street, trying to find ways to house them.
The churches, being backbones to communities, trying to help and assist in any way needed.
The way I see it, without warning, without having time to prepare, we have made and are still making swift adjustments to life as it is today with this sudden change that none of us saw coming.
I think we are doing a hell of a job!
I thank my Savior for every person that leave there home to go out and do any job that’s essential to my living. These are brave, unselfish, dedicated souls, we could not continue functioning without them. They are actually risking there lives to save ours. You are ALL awesome! Thank you.
My Lord, The Whole, Entire World, fighting the same battle at the same time.
Is This a Test?
Is this a glimpse of what the future with be like for us? Will our battles be fought with germs in the future? You better believe this is weighing heavily in some of our most brilliant minds, or proven that, yes, a germ will work.
This past decade, have we been being conditioned to live such as this? Living isolated, yet dependent on each other, having to make decisions who to trust, who not to trust in life and death situations, whether to stockpile selfishly or share, even, should we love our neighbor as our self.
Know this one thing, The World Will Never Be The Same. Those of us who survive this virus, will have to live in this world as it is, not knowing when (not if) this or something worse will happen.
Murphy’s law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”
Is this a test run? Will we who are left be ready?
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