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Andrew Latham, The Conversation: How 3 prior pandemics triggered massive societal shifts
Before March of this year, few probably thought disease could be a significant driver of human history.
Not so anymore. People are beginning to understand that the little changes COVID-19 has already ushered in or accelerated – telemedicine, remote work, social distancing, the death of the handshake, online shopping, the virtual disappearance of cash and so on – have begun to change their way of life. They may not be sure whether these changes will outlive the pandemic. And they may be uncertain whether these changes are for good or ill.
Three previous plagues could yield some clues about the way COVID-19 might bend the arc of history. As I teach in my course “Plagues, Pandemics and Politics,” pandemics tend to shape human affairs in three ways.
First, they can profoundly alter a society’s fundamental worldview. Second, they can upend core economic structures. And, finally, they can sway power struggles among nations.
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WNU Editor: The Covid-19 pandemic will not only be remembered for its health impacts, but also its economic and financial ones. How bad and how deep these economic and financial impacts will be is still unknown. But printing money and assuming massive debts never ends well for governments and countries who pursue it. And we are now in the mother of all printing money and assuming debt crisis.
