Synopsis
There have been pandemics throughout the course of human history; they have savaged countries, undermined empires and killed countless individuals - often with drastic and unexpected consequences for the survivors. Life After COVID-19 investigates past epidemics and their aftermath, seeking to draw parallels with the world of today and examine how the world could look when this new contagion has finally receded.
Author Bob Gordon starts by studying the Black Death (1347-1351), a bubonic plague pandemic that killed a third of Europe’s population, and traces its periodic re-emergence over the course of several centuries including, famously, in London in 1665-1666. He goes on to look at how Napoleon’s imperial ambitions were laid waste by yellow fever in Saint Domingue and typhus in Russia. Next ‘King Cholera’, the bane of the 19th century, is considered. A disease of immigration, it stalked across North America for decades causing untold horror. A century ago, the Spanish influenza pandemic ravaged a world already reeling after four years of conflict. Studying the course and aftermath of this disastrous pandemic offers the greatest insights into how a future COVID-19 endemic world might look. Recent pandemics mercifully averted, such as SARS, MERS and ebola, are also considered.
The final chapters look at the current pandemic, its etiology and symptomatology. The current state of the search for therapeutics and vaccines is examined, while the aftershocks of COVID-19 are considered in a variety of fields - including the impact on retailers, the entertainment industry, airline travel, education and more.
About the Author
Born and raised in southwestern Ontario, educated at the University of Toronto and McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Bob is a journalist and popular historian. He has spent 30 years writing about Canadian military, criminal and social history. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines across Canada, in the United States and in England. His friends call him the 'cat whisperer', while around the editorial offices of Esprit de Corps he is known as the 'myth buster'. He is a rabid Chicago Bears fan and plans to retire to Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
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