How the Global Pandemic is Better than Last Time

The Spanish flu killed a couple million people across the world in 1918-1919. We are now, a century later, mired again in a global pandemic, month number ten. But things aren’t quite as grim this time, unless of course, you are one of the science deniers who refuses to social distance, wear a mask, and stay home.

For one thing, the world is not at war.
We have access to disposable masks.
I am pretty sure there was no hand sanitizer to keep in your glove compartment.
Scientists know more than they did in 1918.
People didn’t have cell phones to get alerts about exposure risks.
There were no nose swab tests to see if you have the antibodies.
There were no Zoom calls.
There was no virtual school.
There were no livestream music concerts.
There was no TV to get the facts to the people.
There was no PPE to order for the heathcare people.
There was no vaccine approved in less than a year’s time.
There was no YouTube for bored families to post silly pandemic videos.
There was no tick-tock for the same (see above).
There was no Facebook to feel like you are part of a community when you can’t leave your house.
There was no Door Dash.
There was no Amazon Prime.
There was no order online and pick up at the store.

However, people weren’t as mobile 100 years ago. I have friends dying to travel, and they just might if they do.

Also, some scientists believe this is the beginning of our new reality. I read a scary article today about mink, farmed and wild, animals that have caught and died from Covid 19, and how the virus has passed from minks to humans.

The Netherlands and Denmark have stopped their mink farms because of the risk of the virus mutating and crossing back into humans. The last sentence of the article was this: “The virus seems to have come from bats, passing through some other animal on the way, and could easily enough pass from us to another kind of wild animal, establishing what epidemiologists call a reservoir, a permanent lake of disease waiting for us to fall in or sip from.”

If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. A permanent virus risk? A permanent lifestlye of wearing masks in public and staying away from people? Think of all the gatherings that would never be again.

Sporting events,

Dances,

Parties,

Conventions,

Conferences,

Classrooms,

College,

Bars,

Restaurants,

Meet-ups,

Fairs, carnivals, amusement parks,

and on and on and on.

My girlfriend says we need to stop raising animals for meat and how that would solve the problem.

But the virus started in a wild animal, not a farmed animal. Everyone is grasping at straws regarding how to prevent a pandemic from ever happening again.

At least in our lifetimes.