Pandemics are nothing new. Outbreaks of deadly diseases have occurred throughout recorded history, and certainly before that as well. The Spanish Influenza of 1918 killed somewhere between 40 and 100 million people worldwide. Worse still, the Black Plague reached Europe in 1347 and killed between 100 and 200 million people—somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of the continent’s population. The exact numbers of dead will never be known, but what we do know is that it took 150 years for the population to recover. These pandemics (and others) came in waves that lasted for months or years, and killed indiscriminately. …read more