Skip to main content

Module 7: Pandemic Essay


Daine Becerra Garcia 
Professor Andrews
World History II 
16 April 2020
Global Pandemics
Today the United States is suffering from a virus named COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. Some historical context on coronaviruses is that this virus comes from a “large family of zoonotic viruses” (Vince Mcleod). This means that these viruses are able to be transmitted from an animal to humans and can cause severe respiratory problems or just a common cold. The symptoms of the COVID-19 are dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties, but this virus can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. As we know most of the people that are affected by COVID-19 are older people with health conditions like diabetes, cancer, asthma, heart disease, and lung disease. The first case of COVID-19 was discovered around December of 2019 when Dr. Zhang Jixian, the head of the respiratory department at Hubei Provincial Hospital, reported a novel coronavirus. There were about 180 cases later that day (Bryner). COVID-19 takes about two weeks to take effect and according to Timothy Sheahan, “In mice, the disease is similar, but the progression is faster, taking about 1 week” (Sheahan). All this information makes people think, how did people survive when there were pandemics back in time? We have a lot of resources today, but what happened when people didn’t have what we have today. 
       What is a pandemic? Well, according to the CDC, “a pandemic is a global outbreak of disease” (CDC). Meaning that since COVID-19 is spreading rapidly and there isn’t any existing immunity to the virus, it spreads worldwide. Long ago, there was a global pandemic that killed about 5 million people. This plague was known as the Antonine Plague, around 165 AD to 180 AD. It is said that this plague emerged during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This plague affected Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy the most. Galen, a Greek physician who lived in the Roman Empire, described the plague and explained the plague with symptoms like, “fevers, skin sores, diarrhea, and sore throats” (McVean). Although these were some of the symptoms, scientists were not sure exactly what this plague was. Many scientists believe that it was smallpox or measles, but these people were never 100% sure. Like most plagues, this plague was a very rapidly spreading disease. The Antonine Plague was brought by Roman soldiers when they returned from Mesopotamia. There are two supposed legends on how the plague was caused. The first is, Lucius Verus, the Roman general, and later co-emperor opened a closed tomb in, “Seleucia during the subsequent sacking of the city thus releasing the disease” (Horgan). People believe that this was a punishment for raiding the city. The second story is, “a Roman soldier opened a golden casket in the temple of Apollo in Babylon allowing the plague to escape” (Horgan). In both stories, the plague is used as punishment for “violating the sanctuary of a god and breaking the oath” (Horgan). Many Romans blamed Christians for getting the gods upset and causing the outbreak. Either way, the Roman army was devastated. Although some blamed Christians, during this time period, there was a spread of religions like Christianity and Mithraism and renewal in spirituality. Christianity, “spread so rapidly throughout the empire at the end of the second century” (Yeomans). The reason being, people tend to be more faithful in moments of fear. After the outbreak, Marcus Aurelius made the requirements for membership into Athens, Greece less harsh because there weren’t many surviving upper-class Athenians.
       Hearing that the United States has been hit with a world pandemic, is very surprising. Especially when you’ve only heard about pandemics from your history book. Being alive during something that might only be heard in a history textbook, is very unusual. When first hearing of this virus, people thought that it was something fake, others went to the extreme and haven’t been out of their houses in months, but there have been different ways of fighting against the virus. One being quarantine and other different resources that come from the government. Being in 165 AD during the time of the Antonine Plague must have been scary because of the insufficient amount of resources used to protect families. Imagining being infected without even knowing what’s going on and without any protection, might be the worst feeling. Today, we know what’s going on because we have a lot of information coming in from all over the place, which can also be the worst thing because there is a lot of fake news trying to alarm people. 
       In conclusion, there have been many more pandemics that we should learn about. The Antonine Plague isn’t the only plague, there are many more, but it’s clear that even though COVID-19 has affected the United States, we can beat it because of the resources that we have. 


Sources Used 
https://www.labmanager.com/lab-health-and-safety/covid-19-a-history-of-coronavirus-22021 
https://www.livescience.com/first-case-coronavirus-found.html 
https://asm.org/Podcasts/MTM/Episodes/Coronavirus-Antiviral-Drug-Discovery-with-Timothy 
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html#:~:text=A%20pandemic%20is%20a%20global,pandemic%20by%20the%20WHO. 
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-history/measles-plague-ruined-rome 
https://www.ancient.eu/Antonine_Plague/ 
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/the-antonine-plague-and-the-spread-of-christianity/ 




Comments

  1. Aya MoussaApril 17, 2020 at 8:35 PM

    There is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for COVID-19 infection. People infected with COVID-19 are treated with supportive care to help relieve symptoms.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 8: Capitalism and Culture

2) What factors contributed to economic globalization in the second half of the twentieth century? The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a deep concentration of global economic linkages as the aftermath of World War I and then the Great Depression. This was very big damage to the world’s economy.  There was a major acceleration in international economic transactions that took place in the second half of the twentieth century and continued into the twenty-first. The "Bretton Woods system" negotiated the rules for commercial and financial dealings among the major capitalist countries, while promoting relatively free trade, stable currency values linked to the US dollar, and high levels of capital investment. The technology was a major contributor to the acceleration of economic globalization. Containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services dramatically lowered transportation costs. Later the internet provided communication for global economic i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 5: Global Pandemics

In 2020 the world is suffering from COVID-19. There have been many global pandemics in the world and long ago there was a pandemic that killed about 5 million people around 165 AD to 180 AD. This plague known as the Antonine Plague emerged during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This epidemic brought the spread of religions like Christianity and Mithraism and renewal in spirituality. This plague affected Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, but to this day the cause of this pandemic is still unknown. Many people believe that it was smallpox or measles. This disease was brought by Roman soldiers when they returned from Mesopotamia. Rome’s army was devastated. This plague was a very rapidly spreading disease, just like COVID-19. After the outbreak, Marcus Aurelius made the requirements for membership into Athens, Greece less harsh because there weren’t many surviving upper-class Athenians. This pandemic affected many people like COVID-19 is affecting many people today. https://www.biblicalar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 6: The End of the Empire

3) What international circumstances and social changes contributed to the end of colonial empires? The world wars weakened Europe and it discredited any sense of European moral superiority. Both the United States and the Soviet Union opposed the older European colonial empires even as they created empire-like international relationships of their own. The United Nations provided a prestigious platform from which to conduct anticolonial agitation. All this contributed to the global illegitimacy of the empire. By the twentieth century in Asia and the mid-twentieth century in Africa, a second or third generation of Western-educated elites, mainly male, had arisen throughout the colonial world. The young men were very familiar with European culture and were aware of the gap between their values and practice. They didn’t view the colonial rule as a vehicle for their peoples’ progress as their fathers had. There were also a lot of growing numbers of ordinary people who were also receptive ...
1 comment
Read more