Abstract
This editorial presents a brief review of pandemics from antiquity to COVID-19. Although all large-scale epidemic diseases (pandemics) can be considered ecological checks on human population size, and although COVID-19 is the biggest such pandemic since HIV/AIDS emerged it is not likely to approach the deathtoll of earlier pandemics, such as the plague. There are two major hypotheses to explain the of COVID-19. One is the origin hypothesis, the other is that it might have escaped from a laboratory, with its subsequently hidden. Although most scientists support the natural idea the other cannot yet be dismissed. Evidence for each hypothesis is presented. If the first theory is correct then it is a powerful warning, from nature, that our species is running a great risk. If the second theory is proven then it should be considered an equally powerful, indeed frightening, signal that we are in danger, from hubris as much as from ignorance. More pandemics are inevitable, but their severity can be reduced by greater transparency, international co-operation, and retreat from planetary boundaries.
Highlights
This editorial presents a brief review of pandemics from antiquity to COVID-19
All large-scale epidemic diseases (“pandemics”) can be considered ecological “checks” on human population size, and COVID-19 is the biggest such pandemic since HIV/AIDS emerged it is not likely to approach the deathtoll of earlier pandemics, such as the plague
The word “plague”, is, today, mostly associated with the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the causal organism for the Black Death and the Justinian plague
Summary
All large-scale epidemic diseases (“pandemics”) can be considered ecological “checks” on human population size, and COVID-19 is the biggest such pandemic since HIV/AIDS emerged it is not likely to approach the deathtoll of earlier pandemics, such as the plague. Zoonoses (defined here as pathogens that have spread occurred in this period, in a time when humans have infrom other animal species to humans) recognised in the creasingly transformed nature, and laboratory ingenuity, last 70 years cause diseases including Ebola, Human though not necessarily laboratory wisdom [7,12].
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