Meanwhile in panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick until it hit right at home. Sales persons closed their stores, priests refused to administer last rites and doctors approached patients with caution. Many fled the cities for the country side but they could not escape the disease.
Napoleon did not succeed in conquering Russia neither did Hitler, but the black death did; same case scenario today, we all thought nothing could bring the world to a standstill, for a moment, the world paused and tried to deal with COVID-19.
A Trentino has become the order of the day. We might go back to normality or somewhat not. Desperation has already hit us and we wonder why we are not back to the way things used to be.
The black ship sails for the shore but no one awaits on the harbor, in the realm of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst possible case scenario. Communicable diseases existed during hunter- gatherer days but the shift to a more stable agrarian life made epidemics more possible.
Fear has taken a toll on us, the only good thing we can do is look out the window and wonder if this will pass. How empty the streets are, the dullness, the pain, so many sad stories overheard as we walk,- but there are great hopes of a decrease.
Samuel Pepys gives a vivid account of the empty streets of London in the year 1665-1667. The plague victims were buried outside of the city walls and it is said they have never been disturbed since then dreading a resurgence of the plague. The glassy embankments below the city walls are the sites of these plague pits.
A song is still sung by the children ‘ring a ring of roses’ or so it goes.
With the novel Corona Virus, nothing has changed, we are back at it. I wonder what song we sing today as we give vivid accounts of our streets. One day we will look back at how we lived with this deadly virus……
What do you think?