The coronavirus epidemic is certainly the curse of globalization. The proximity of individuals, through travel, has its blessings and its dangers.
In historic times, many pandemics had devastating impacts on certain remote societies but they were contained because of a lack of movement of people. Thus, past pandemics were contained and people living in other parts of the world were not affected nor even informed of the misery that had befallen members of humanity in another region.
Coronavirus (Covid-19) has followed closely the patterns of the Black Death or the Pestilence, which broke out in the 14th century in Central Asia and spread to Europe, peaking from 1347 to 1351. The Black Death killed 30 percent to 60 percent of Europe’s population, reducing it from 475 million to 350 million. It is believed that the virus was carried by rats traveling on Genovese merchant ships.
Coronavirus has emerged from China, believed to be carried by bats. And since modern transportation moves faster than Genovese ships, the spread of the virus has been nearly instantaneous globally.
The world, which until so very recently had been divided into many enemy camps, is united by the necessity to combat this global threat. Italy, a NATO member country, received medication and medical teams from China to combat the outbreak. The humanity of mankind is forced upon the population of the globe by overwhelming natural disasters.
Today no country is immune from the virus, which has spread to 138 countries around the world.
