Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-044

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (March 11, 2025) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps, we recall a chaotic, scary and deadly health crisis that changed “our” world.  

CORONAVIRUS

Five years ago today the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.  So long ago and yet sometimes it feels like yesterday as the early measures taken to fight the spread of the disease are still affecting our lives today.

The respiratory virus ranged from totally asymptomatic to deadly.  The immediate safe measure was to isolate people, causing the shuttering of all but essential businesses and the lockdown of social situations. 

While the young seemed relatively unaffected, the elderly made up the majority of the early victims of the disease.

The outbreak was discovered in Wuhan, China in November of 2019, but quickly spread to other countries.  By the time of the pandemic declaration in March of 2020, only a few isolated islands were not under the ravage of the quick-spreading virus. 

With no vaccines in place, it was hard to combat and the best approach was to avoid contact with other people to stay healthy.  Vaccines arrived in late 2020 and a year later were easily available although a staggering rollout was used.  (Author’s Note: thank you to Katalin Kariko of Hungary for your m-RNA research directly leading to a vaccine for which she holds the foundational patents… professional reward: Nobel Prize)

On May 5, 2023, The World Health Organization declared that the pandemic was no longer a “public health emergency of international concern”, but it seems that COVID-19, in its various strains, is here to stay.

Presenting here Speed’s ornate world map from 1626.

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: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.