The Spanish flu, the worst and deadly pandemic in human history ,erupted in 1918, spread like wind, in three waves, from villages to countries to continents, among the two legged helpless creatures, through sneeze and cough, dragged many into the mass graves dug with stream shovel, washed out nearly 500 million people from the surface of the Earth, by giving a stiff completion to World War I and shamed the later as it could only fetch 40 Million lives, and had disappeared from the World, almost abruptly, after a dangerous and shattering second wave, by end of 1918, leaving only a little room to a third wave to spread across with less intensity but to kill many more, surprisingly lesser than its predecessor, arguably due to the eroded strength of the virus due to mutation during the second wave and possibly due to the improved immune system in human bodies and may be due to the progress in preventive healthcare system.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2), the culprit behind the COVID-19, is shaking the world with fear and redrawing the definition of human being as an “isolated animal” from the erstwhile “social animal” and trying to mimic its ancestor by pulling as much as it can to the graveyards but this fellow will also lose its steam soon and eventually disappear from this World abruptly like Spanish Flu.
Though the Spanish Flu flew away to nowhere in a twitch, it happened to be a curtain raiser for an economic paralysis which pushed the whole world into a deep depression in 1929, the worst in human history and affected more than the Spanish Flu had infected. The COVID-19 is also capable to shake the economic foundation of the world, at least for a short time, to leave millions jobless and drag all but none to distress and agony, but to bounce back to normalcy by end of 2021. Hope , 2021 will bring us more prosperity, hope and health and help us to bounce back, we can hope, as positive thoughts are stronger to fight all ills and odds and regain back the lost hope.
Bijoy P Pulipra