Hello everyone!
I hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day and/or perhaps a wonderful Birthday.
I hope you guys enjoy the sneak peak of my presentation tomorrow!
Introduction
Let's talk Pandemics, hmm?
The complete whirlwind of pestilence and socio-economic change brought forth to launch humanity into the next stage of evolution ,whether that be biologically or socially. We're gonna break down three separate pandemics that have occurred in human history, and we are going to discuss the changes that occurred. Perhaps you'll see some similarities in these events.
Bubonic Plague
Let us begin with Bubonic, the word which launches me back into 7th grade when I was forced to listen to a parody of "Hollaback Girl" that discussed the Bubonic plague and has been stuck in the back of my head ever since. If you feel like being cursed with a 7th grade banger, watch for yourself here:
Anyway, Let's talk numbers.
Keep in mind that the accuracy of historical data relies heavily on the conservation of historical documents and first-hand accounts, thus it's likely we don't have a clear picture of the Black Death's actual fatality rates and full impact, but let's see what we do have.
The Bubonic Plague, also referred to as the "Black Death", was said to have originated from fleas and affected both humans and animals. It re-emerged several times throughout history, with some even speculating that the "Plagues of Egypt" were more so Black Death and less Angry Sky Person. We are focusing on the outbreak that occurred in the 1300s in Europe, which lasted approximately 3 to 4 years.
The estimated Death Toll was 25 million, with the most affected groups being young children and old men. However, it is worthy to note that there was a significant lack of data regarding women and children as a whole, so the numbers were probably much higher.
Methods of prevention back then meant panicking and fleeing(pun) to the country to avoid interactions with other people, they would burn all the affected bodies as well as their belongings. There was no vaccine, though we have developed one now should someone catch it.
I found an interesting quote:
"People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done. Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and so fought the plague with prayer. Some felt that they should obey the maxim, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die." The society experienced an upheaval to an extent usually only seen in controlled circumstances such as carnival. Faith in religion decreased after the plague, both because of the death of so many of the clergy and because of the failure of prayer to prevent sickness and death." (Brown University)
Economically, they dealt with extreme inflation of prices due to "supply chain" issues. It was even more dangerous to procure goods for the markets. At this time, Serfs were incentivized to work for more than one Lord to earn more money. Lords needed serfs to work the land and were forced to increase their pay, whether that be commodity or barter, in order to keep their workers.
This was also a time where much injustice came to the forefront and the aristocracy failed in their attempt to remain constant, protests and riots broke up, especially in France.
Spanish Influenza
We launch ourselves several centuries forward to the end of World War 1, in barracks that were said to have grown the H1N1 Virus as it spread through military and eventually found its way into society.
The length of the pandemic was approximately 2 years, with a Death Toll of roughly 50 million (this is a guess-timation, sources place it anywhere between 25 and 100 million). Prevention methods were mainly social distancing, with an emphasis of schools and barracks as potential spike areas. There was no vaccine during that time. Most of the casualties were said to be the older population, but the data is iffy since there are also reports of a "W" shape, with spikes in young and old, and slightly middle. Historical data can be confusing. There were also pictures from this time of mask wearing.
Medical professionals encouraged the use of masks to curb the spread, and it was mostly successful. For some small groups, Mask-wearing became a political statement and there were protests against them, all the while thousands were still dying of the virus. San Francisco became well-known for their mask mandate, even going so far as to charge fines or imprison to those who refused to wear them.
There was much happening economically, mostly to do with the labor market, but it quickly recovered and would advance greatly until it crashes and burns 10 years later and unleashing the Great Depression. There was also the start of the Prohibition, where America successfully built their own efficient black market all in the name of piety. Good job, America.
As for socially, most of us should know what happened in 1919, the Women's Rights Movement gained much traction and by the end of 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified.
COVID-19
The source of our current pandemic is speculative as data is still being gathered, but the general consensus is that it originated in Wuhan, China, potentially from a bat or an animal in general. The pandemic is ongoing, though some argue we are transitioning into the recovery phase.
Current Death Toll sits at roughly 5.9 million. Most affected groups are the older generation and those with pre-existing health conditions. Prevention methods include social distancing, use of antibacterial substances, masks, and rounds of vaccination shots. Transmission of the virus is mainly through the unvaccinated. In the U.S., we currently sit at 76.5% of Americans having received at least one shot, 64.7% being Fully Vaccinated, and 27.8% have received the Booster shot.
Economically, we have experienced severe issues within the supply chain, driving up prices. The government offered supplemental payments, which they paid for by printing more money, driving inflation and prices up even more . During all of this, demand for change was high. Americans wanted to continue life again, they needed change from the lockdowns and sought to spend their money, whether that be on miscellaneous goods, travelling, or relocating. The combination of all these practices led to the market we have today. There is some good news, the government is starting open market operations. This will not do much for some time, but it will eventually drive down the current inflation we are dealing with.
The pandemic also endured much social unrest, including BLM, Election protests, mandate protests, and the Capital Riot.
Most of these were enflamed by the animosity that current exists in our two-party system.
Let's have a discussion:
Given what you have heard/read here, do you see any major patterns between these pandemics?
With these similarities or differences, would you say that the current pandemic was more damaging or less than previous ones?
Has the spread of instant information helped our pandemic or fueled even more discourse?
How do you feel about the information above? Are you surprised? Indifferent maybe? Frustrated?
I'd like to know.
Looking forward to my presentation tomorrow!
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ReplyDeleteIn Medieval Europe, a Pandemic Changed Work Forever. Can It Happen Again?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/opinion/sunday/covid-plague-work-labor.html?searchResultPosition=1
Feb. 16, 2022
By M.T. Anderson
Mr. Anderson is the author of “Feed” and “Landscape With Invisible Hand.”
In the wake of a devastating pandemic, millions of people are dead and many more have had their lives upended. Many of those who survive, worn down by a sense of futility in their work and by the impassable gap between the wealthy and everyone else, refuse to return to their old jobs or quit en masse. Tired of being overworked and underpaid, they feel they deserve a better life.
This could be a story about today, but it is also the pattern that emerged across Europe in the aftermath of one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history, the Black Death.
The struggles over wages and the value of labor that defined the post-plague years were in some ways as dramatic as the pandemic itself. Eventually, Europe erupted into violence. Given where we are right now, it’s worth paying attention to the chain of events that led, link by link, from pandemic to panic to bloody uprising.
The Black Death, as we now call it, burned its way across the Eurasian continent from 1347 to 1351. Arab historian Ibn Khaldun recalled with horror, “Civilization both in the East and the West was visited by a destructive plague which devastated nations and caused populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out.’’
Europe, particularly hard-hit, lost somewhere between a third and a half of its population (though historians still dispute the figure). “Many lands and cities were made desolate,” the Italian historian Giovanni Villani wrote in 1348. “And this plague lasted till _____.” He never filled in the end date. He had died of the plague before he could.
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How a Virus Exposed the Myth of Rugged Individualism
ReplyDeleteHumans evolved to be interdependent, not self-sufficient
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-virus-exposed-the-myth-of-rugged-individualism/
By Robin G. Nelson | Scientific American March 2022 Issue
nsFor countless Americans, there was a dull but persistent pain to prepandemic life: high-priced housing, nearly inaccessible health care, underresourced schools, wage stagnation and systemic inequality. It was a familiar ache, a kind of chronic hurt that people learned to live with simply because they had no other choice. Faced with threadbare safety nets and a cultural ethos championing nationalist myths of self-sufficiency, many people did what humans have always done in times of need: they sought emotional comfort and material aid from their family and friends. But when COVID-19 hit, relying on our immediate networks was not sufficient. Americans are gaslit into thinking that they are immeasurably strong, impervious to the challenges people in other countries face. In reality, our social and economic support systems are weak, and many people are made vulnerable by nearly any change in their capacity to earn a living. The fallout from the pandemic is an urgent call to strengthen our aid systems.
Anthropologists have long recognized that exceptionally high degrees of sociality, cooperation and communal care are hallmarks of humankind, traits that separate us from our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos. This interdependence has been key to our success as a species. Viewed this way, we humans have an evolutionary mandate to be generous and take care of one another. But unlike early humans, who lived in comparatively small groups, we cannot just rely on our immediate family and friends for support. We must invest in national policies of communal care—policies that facilitate access to resources for people who need help—to a degree that is commensurate with the size and complexity of today’s globalized societies.
In a sense, the entanglement of our everyday lives made us all the more vulnerable to an airborne virus that demanded social isolation, blowing up the facade of normalcy in the spring of 2020. The new COVID normal, with its mask wearing, social distancing, lockdowns and closed schools, compelled us to abandon our most basic instincts and turn away from our closest friends and family. It rent the social fabric on which we all rely.
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