Pandemics on retrospect.

Happy New Year or congrats on the successful completion of a full rotation around the sun, dear readers. Let this year be less Great Depression and more Roaring! If you don’t get what I mean by that, reviewing the 1920s is a must.

Anyways, my first post for this year will be dealing with rather depressing events – long-gone pandemics, some diseases and asociated deaths. Very optimistic, right? Well, the cup cannot be always half full. Speaking of cups, the absolute winner for last year was the Corona (throwback to when Corona was just a beer).

Well, as you probably know, the past is an echo in the future and it would serve us a great deal if we can actually listen to that echo. To be better prepared and avoid disappointment, that is. My point here is that this whole global pandemic that we have been dealing with for the past year and more, is something that has happened before and will continue to happen for as long as there are stars in the sky. Of course, every situation is unique and things never happen the same way twice but the fundamentals rarely change and therefore need to be reviewed regularly. I am about to do just that and for that purpose I will list every major pandemic there was with the help of her majesty, the table grid. Prepare yourselves because the list is actually long.

This is the place to say that the latest pandemic seems to be hitting us a bit too hard emotionally and I am not sure that we are handling well the situation. I, for one, am certainly not. How have people coped with difficult times like world pandemics and wars? Were the people of the past better? Stronger? Wiser? After everything I have read I dare say… they were.

Recently, I came across some articles that were discussing the best and worst times to be born and I can proudly say that I live in the best of times. 2021. How well I am using that is another question.

In that sense, let us just for a moment imagine that you were born in the year 1900. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. Later in that year, the Spanish flu epidemic kills around 50 million people. If you actually survive it you get to enjoy the 1920s with some epic parties Gatsby style (no, Leonardo Di Caprio won’t be born for another 54 years). Sadly, on your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins and most probably will leave you unemployed and penniless. Sorry. That runs until you are 33. The world economy is almost collapsed. When you turn 39, congratulations, World War II begins. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people die in the war. Smallpox was epidemic during your 40s and killed 300 million people during your lifetime. At 50, the Korean war starts – 5 million dead. At 55, the Vietnam war begins and will not end for another 20 years – 4 million will die. You live through the Cold war and the Cuban missle crisis at the age of 62, luckily you did not experience the nuclear weapon.

And there you are. You have seen it all. I honestly cannot decide if 1900 was the worst or the most exciting time one can be born. However, the comparison is inevitable – living in the 21st century is easy and comfortable in all standards and yet it seems to be the time when people are most frigile, vulnerable and lonely.

It is a wonderful paradox – to have it all and yet nothing of the really valuable.

Now sit back and enjoy.