Pandemic COVID-19 Joins History's Pandemic Legion

Abstract

With great apprehension, the world is now watching the birth of a novel pandemic already causing tremendous suffering, death, and disruption of normal life. Uncertainty and dread are exacerbated by the belief that what we are experiencing is new and mysterious. However, deadly pandemics and disease emergences are not new phenomena: they have been challenging human existence throughout recorded history. Some have killed sizeable percentages of humanity, but humans have always searched for, and often found, ways of mitigating their deadly effects. We here review the ancient and modern histories of such diseases, discuss factors associated with their emergences, and attempt to identify lessons that will help us meet the current challenge.

Keywords: COVID-19; influenza; pandemic; plague.

FIG 1

Estimated world population and selected known pandemics/widespread disease emergences, from 10,000 BCE to 2020 AD.

FIG 2

Mummy of Pharaoh Usermaatre Sekheperenre Ramesses V (ca. 1196 to 1145 BCE), showing smallpox lesions, e.g., on the bridge of his nose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_V#/media/File:Ramses_V_mummy_head.png).

FIG 3

Fighting plagues (A) in the 17th century (https://www.dhm.de/blog/2017/07/27/beaky-plague-protection/) and (B) in 2020 (caused by SARS-CoV-2 [https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/01/560477/only-high-quality-masks-can-defend-against-coronavirus,%20image%20used%20by%20permission%20of%20Reuters%20News%20Agency, image used by permission of Reuters News Agency]).

FIG 4

1665 portrait of renowned painter, poet, and public intellectual Gérard de Lairesse (1641 to 1711), by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 to 1669). Lairesse’s facial deformities caused him to be shunned by some contemporaries; they are now thought to have resulted from congenital syphilis. (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459082; public domain.)