Just how common are pandemics? You might be surprised.
Currently I am reading “Seven Ways To Change The World: How To Fix The Most Pressing Problems We Face” by Gordon Brown. In his chapter on ‘Preventing Pandemics’, he writes:
“Lest we think COVID-19 is a ‘black swan’ and that global pandemics are one-offs, it is worth examining the evidence. Throughout history, more people have been killed by pandemics than by wars and lesser conflicts.
And indeed it is an equally remarkable contemporary fact that, already in this still-young century, we have witnessed five large-scale epidemics: SARS (2003), avian flu (2009), Ebola (2014), Zika (2018), and now COVID-19.”