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History of Pandemics

  • Period: 430 BCE to 426 BCE

    Plague of Athens

    History of the Peloponnesian War, II.vii.3-54 translated by scholar P. J. Rhodes, included by Michael Grant in his book: Readings in the Classical Historians.
  • Period: 1346 to

    Second Plague Pandemic

    Key Takeaway: People were beginning to innovate and develop safety and precautionary measures such as masks and physical distancing. Additionally, doctors were beginning to be able to treat or at least minorly help relieve patients and there were specific plague doctors.
  • Spanish Flu

    Spanish Flu

    Key takeaway: The medical field was progressing and new innovations such as the flu mask seen in the photo were developed to combat spread and infection.
  • Small Pox

    Small Pox

    Key takeaways: Safety measures such as quarantine and isolation are much more commonplace and even government-controlled in times of emergency. This active control shows major progress in how pandemics have been treated over time.
  • First Covid-19 Case

    https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unkown-cause-china/en/
    Key takeaways: Covid-19 is the first virus to become a pandemic in modern times with modern medicine.
  • Vaccine Against Covid-19 Announced

    https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-vaccine-candidate-against
    Key takeaways: The Covid Vaccine was developed in under one year after the first cases were discovered. In comparison, Smallpox had reportedly been in circulation since 10 000 BCE, yet a vaccine was only developed in 1980.