Nükhet Varlik, a historian at the University of South Carolina, studies the history of diseases and public health. In this article, she reveals that epidemics and pandemics seldom completely disappear. Only one epidemic–smallpox–has been eradicated. Many others survive.
She writes:
A combination of public health efforts to contain and mitigate the pandemic – from rigorous testing and contact tracing to social distancing and wearing masks – have been proven to help. Given that the virus has spread almost everywhere in the world, though, such measures alone can’t bring the pandemic to an end. All eyes are now turned to vaccine development, which is being pursued at unprecedented speed.
Yet experts tell us that even with a successful vaccine and effective treatment, COVID-19 may never go away. Even if the pandemic is curbed in one part of the world, it will likely continue in other places, causing infections elsewhere. And even if it is no longer an immediate pandemic-level threat, the coronavirus will likely become endemic – meaning slow, sustained transmission will persist. The coronavirus will continue to cause smaller outbreaks, much like seasonal flu.
The history of pandemics is full of such frustrating examples.
Whether bacterial, viral or parasitic, virtually every disease pathogen that has affected people over the last several thousand years is still with us, because it is nearly impossible to fully eradicate them.
The only disease that has been eradicated through vaccination is smallpox. Mass vaccination campaigns led by the World Health Organization in the 1960s and 1970s were successful, and in 1980, smallpox was declared the first – and still, the only – human disease to be fully eradicated.
We can all do our part to reduce the danger of COVID-19 by wearing masks and social distancing. When there is a vaccine available, we should take it. It may never be completely eradicated, but we can protect ourselves and our communities by following the practices that scientists have agreed are effective.
All of this sounds reasonable. For the immediate future we do have to wonder if there is a scientific consensus on mitigation of the Covid-19 virus. I say this because the CDC has issued new rules on social distancing. These are causing major problems for schools. See the follow link to and the embedded link to the new October 21 CDC guidelines. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2020/10/cdc_clarifies_15-minute_rule_for_COVID_social_distancing.html
Assuming schools pay attention to those recommendations, which the schools in my state, anyway, are ignoring.
While Ebola and other pandemic type diseases are rarely eradicated vaccines and treatments reduce the impact. The refusal to vaccinate will lead to continuing “hot spots” … maybe thinning populations In some areas
much like places today where vaccinations are kept away from the populace for various reasons: notable numbers of people who get sick with diseases (measles for example) which can be kept down to minimal numbers with vaccines
This is actually a bit misleading, since it warps the definition of “pandemic”.
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected people such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
While it is very true that most of the diseases that have caused epidemics and pandemics in the past are still present in the human population(i.e., are endemic), that doesn’t mean that they are at epidemic or pandemic levels all the time. Polio is an excellent example. While this disease still exists in the human population, there hasn’t been an outbreak of even epidemic proportions in decades, due to the increase in vaccination. We can certainly end the current SARS-CoV2 pandemic by similar means, even though we will probably never eliminate the virus from the human population. Just as people were able to return to more normal activities after the end of the U.S. polio epidemics once a vaccine was available and widely administered, so we will be able to do the same once we meet similar criteria for the current pandemic. The question is really how long that will take. But epidemics and pandemics do end, whether from natural or (as we have shown many time) artificial means of bringing the spread of the disease under control.
Apologies as I will date myself here, but I recall the horrible polio epidemic that spread through the US (and perhaps other countries) in the 1950’s. Our family, like millions of others, lived in huge fear. Most of us were ok but many many young people suffered terrible life long damage. “All theaters, swimming pools, churches, schools and public meeting places were closed.”
https://www.history.com/news/polio-fear-post-wwii-era
You motivated me to look up my notes on the book Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio. It quite vividly brings to life what that era was like and how it terrorized parents throughout the nation. Actually kind of puts today’s pandemic into perspective. Here’s one paragraph I wrote for myself that kind of sums it up:
“Despite the relatively dry topic of medical research, this story manages to be suspenseful. Kluger’s account of the culminating press conference in which the results of the first nationwide implementation of the vaccine were announced—a press conference!!—is the unlikely emotional highpoint of the narrative. Additionally, the history and anecdotes of how polio affected both the national consciousness and individuals while it was raging around the nation are incredibly insightful for those of us who did not live through it.”
If I only knew when I wrote this what was ahead of us. (Apropos, check out the first skit after the monologue of tonight’s SNL. Really fits with this theme!)
Thanks for adding to this discussion, GregB
We certainly won’t make any progress if Trump is re-elected.
……………………………..
As you can see, the first time he said “around the corner” was February 14 of this year. Fast forwarding a bunch of mentions of the so-called corner will bring you to yesterday, October 23, when he claimed that “we are entering the final turn and approaching the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Trump Doesn’t Understand How Corners Work | The Daily Social Distancing Show
Oct 23, 2020
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
If you keep rounding the corner, don’t you end up back where you started?
Turning the Coroner
We’ve finally turned the coroner
Into a billionaire!
Where wealth was just a foreigner
It’s now a love affair
With apologies to Pete Seger
For every virus,
Turn turn turn
There is a coroner
Turn turn turn
And a lie for every purpose
Under Trumpdumb
And apologies to God
Here’s the full version
Turn turn turn
For every virus,
Turn turn turn
There is a coroner
Turn turn turn
And a lie for every purpose
Under Trumpdumb
A time to get sick, a time to die
A time to bury, a time to mourn
A time to drink bleach, a time to drink Lysol
For every virus,
Turn turn turn
There is a coroner
Turn turn turn
And a lie for every purpose
Under Trumpdumb
A time to pressure CDC, a time to pressure Fauci
A time to lie, a time to deny
A time to cast away science, a time to gather Roger Stones together
For every virus,
Turn turn turn
There is a coroner
Turn turn turn
And a lie for every purpose
Under Trumpdumb
Dearest Dr. Ravitch:
This post is excellent to educate readers in all of career paths. In my humble onion, emotion is the biggest obstacle for human beings or all of sentient beings including mammal animals.
In short, fluid and tight knitted space or comfortable living space are the true source for epidemic, pandemic and endemic. Only understanding, knowledge, experience and emotion in kindness can complete any danger of pandemic, epidemic and endemic.
Yes, we are only human beings with full of greed, lust and anger. As a result, we need to acquire experiences on our own as much as possible in many reincarnation lives on Earth to achieve a true meaning of kindness and caring for each other unconditionally.
I always respect, admire and adore you, Dr. Ravitch for your precious work in history and education in USA particularly and in global educators in general.
Respectfully yours,
May King (back2basic)
Please note that I cannot post my post recently due to my own faults from my intermittent short term memory.
Better close schools forever.
Don’t worry about it. You can give up and afford Catholic schools, the magic parachutes of denial. Lucky you!
I probably can’t afford them unfortunately.
Trump should ask his good friends Putin, Mohammed bin Salam and Kim Jong Un to speak to the public about how great a president he is.
………………………………….
Trump campaign ad about America’s comeback features footage from Russia and Slovenia
PUBLISHED THU, OCT 22 20206:31 PM EDTUPDATED FRI, OCT 23 20209:26 AM EDT
President Donald Trump’s campaign used stock footage from Russia and Slovenia in a digital ad intended to convince voters that America is bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic…
One of the Trump campaign’s latest Facebook ads features foreign stock footage from Russia and Slovenia. It was live on the campaign’s Facebook page between October 15 and 16 and is now inactive, Facebook’s ad archive says.
The ad depicted an American flag and then to a scene of what could seem like a tranquil field somewhere in the United States.
The clip of that field is, in fact, from Slovenia, according to the photographer who published the clip on Pond5, a website that collects stock photos and videos. The name of the photographer listed on the site is Airstock. CNBC reached out to the photographer through Pond5′s message portal and was told “it was shot in Slovenia and I am from Slovenia.”
The same footage is also available on other stock media sties, such as depositphotos. Those accounts also label themselves as being from Slovenia.
The voiceover of the ad says, “In a face of a trial unlike any other, America is doing what we always do,” as the clip continues into the scene of the field in Slovenia. It goes on to say, “We are rising to the occasion. Thanks to the bold actions of President Trump, we are on the verge of producing a Covid-19 vaccine faster than anyone thought possible.”
As the ad says, “Together we will beat this virus,” a woman who appears to be a doctor pops up on screen. A review of Shutterstock footage shows that the doctor seems to come from the account of a photographer with the online name of Right Cameraman. After a CNBC inquiry, Right Cameraman said in an email that the woman posing as a doctor in the clip was “an actress, filmed in Russia in a studio.”
The Russia-based photographer also said he had no knowledge that his video was being used in the ad until CNBC contacted him…
https://cnb.cx/31vGC4I