An anniversary to be forgotten

FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2021-47 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (March 11, 2021) – In Issue 2021-47 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, reminds us it has been one year since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Invisible Killers

Immune systems are wonderful in recognizing and eliminating harmful viral and bacterial intruders they are familiar with.  But strangers can get the better of them.  Infectious diseases which are easily transmissible can reach pandemic proportions, impacting and eventually killing many.   Tiny droplets expelled through breathing, and fluid exchanges directly or via carriers like fleas or mosquitoes are the most common transmission routes.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the latest pandemic, popularly called Covid-19, as declared by the WHO.

How does this pandemic stack up versus the previously recorded pandemics in death toll?  So far it is number 9 among pandemics with about 2.6 million global deaths.   Top of this dubious list is the bubonic plague, or Black Death caused by bacteria and having killed 100-200 million in the mid-14th century in Eurasia and Africa (about 1/3 to 2/3 of Europe’s population was wiped out).  The H1N1 virus based Spanish flu is number 2 at 20-100 million deaths.

These pandemics can and do originate most anywhere.  Covid-19 started out in China.   Here is a 1969 political subdivision map of China by the CIA.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.