Why this book and how seriously we should consider the COVID-19 pandemic?

There is absolutely no doubt that we should be concerned about COVID-19 and its threat to human life and to the humanity at large. Historically, during 541–542 AD about 25–100 million people which was about 40–50% of population of Europe died due to a plague called “Plague of Justinian” [1,2,3]. In the 1331–1353 AD about 75–200 million (10–60% of European population) died with a plague called “Black Death” [4]. In Mexico during 1545–1548, about 5–15 million (80% of population) died possibly with a disease called “Salmonella Entaria” [5,6,7,8]. During 1918–1920, about 17-100 million people died worldwide due to a pandemic called “Spanish Flu”, an Influenza A Virus subtype H1N1 [9,10,11]. During 1877–1977, about 500 million people died worldwide due to a well-known disease called “Smallpox” [12,13,14,15]. During 2009-2010, a flu pandemic (informally called “swine flu”) due to a virus called H1N1/09 took a death toll of about 18,036 confirmed deaths by WHO, 151,700 (284,000) - 575,400 deaths according to CDC estimate [16]. During 2013–2016, Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, a death toll of 11,300 [17,18,19]. As of April 1, 2020, death toll was 44,232+ due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. It is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus. The outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020 and recognized it as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Nobody should be unware about the novel SARS-CoV-2 known as COviD-19 and its health danger. COVID-19 causes a disease which can be deadly, particularly for older people and those with underlying health conditions. Although the death rate pattern among infected people is not well established or well understood but the rate is about seven-fold higher than the estimate for seasonal influenza.

Human kingdom from the beginning of its existence on earth surface is subjected to many kinds of diseases, natural calamities, famine, wars, genocides that took many human lives in the past. We could not simply eliminate possibilities of massive extinction of human kingdom due to manmade nuclear devices, extraterrestrial meteoric bombardment in the near future.

Learning from the past, and getting ready for the future and tackling the present crisis cannot be addressed with panic, ignorance, stigma, superstition which will only get in the way of what we need to be doing.

In this pandemic crisis we must seek help through patience, resilience, human creativity and wisdom. With patience we need to concentrate on our duties and obligation to humanity that will help us to create vaccine, various ways out of the crisis. Those are getting killed or will be killed due to COVID-19 should not be tagged with any kind of stigma but should be honorably buried with their respective religious rituals. Their sacrifices are ways to find out solutions for others to live comfortably in the near future. The values of those who are sacrificing their lives will remain alive in our inspiration and lessons for the generation ahead of us. This is the test to humanity to remind us how to overcome the fear of getting killed, or losing wealth but rather it is an alarm to concentrate to our missions of life with moral integrity, extreme patience and self-visualization with wisdom and understanding. Perhaps, it is a beacon of Israfil to remind us that life is for a short span of time and during this period we must be able to reflect our duties and obligations in the mirror of our conscience to see our moral, ethical and intellectual transparencies. Our death must be honorable and bring good consequences for the humanity.

So, my message to my readers to become aware about the facts and figures of COVID-19 and keep your worry aside and utilize your knowledge, wisdom and skill sets to stop further spreading of the SARS-COV-2 and defeating the paws of this deadly virus. This guide on COVID-19 will provide you with some accurate information on the virus and try to answer some of the questions you might have about SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, and their related subject matters.

References:
1. Rosen, William (2007), Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe Archived 2017-07-24 at the Wayback Machine. Viking Adult; p. 3; ISBN 978-0-670-03855-8.

  1. Andrew Ekonomou. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes. Lexington Books, 2007.

  2. Maugh, Thomas. “An Empire’s Epidemic”. www.ph.ucla.edu. Retrieved 20 March 2020.

  3. Austin Alchon, Suzanne (2003). A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective. University of New Mexico Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8263-2871-7. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2016-04-22.

  4. “American plague”. New Scientist. December 19, 2000. Archived from the original on October 17, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2018.

  5. Acuna-Soto, R.; Romero, L. C.; Maguire, J. H. (2000). “Large epidemics of hemorrhagic fevers in Mexico 1545–1815”. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 62 (6): 733–739. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2000.62.733. PMID 11304065.

  6. Acuna-Soto, Rodolfo; Stahle, D. W.; Cleaveland, M. K.; Therrell, M. D. (2002). “Megadrought and Megadeath in 16th Century Mexico”. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 8 (4): 360–362. doi:10.3201/eid0804.010175. PMC 2730237. PMID 11971767.

  7. Vågene, Åshild J.; Herbig, Alexander; Campana, Michael G.; Robles García, Nelly M.; Warinner, Christina; Sabin, Susanna; Spyrou, Maria A.; Andrades Valtueña, Aida; Huson, Daniel; Tuross, Noreen; Bos, Kirsten I.; Krause, Johannes (2018). “Salmonella enterica genomes from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico”. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2 (3): 520–528. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0446-6. PMID 29335577

  8. Patterson, K. D.; Pyle, G. F. (1991). “The geography and mortality of the 1918 influenza pandemic”. Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 65 (1): 4–21. PMID 2021692.

  9. P. Spreeuwenberg; et al. (1 December 2018). “Reassessing the Global Mortality Burden of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic”. American Journal of Epidemiology. 187 (12): 2561–2567. doi:10.1093/aje/kwy191. PMID 30202996.

  10. Jilani, TN; Jamil, RT; Siddiqui, AH (14 December 2019). “H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu)”. PMID 30020613. Archived from the original on 12 March 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2020.

  11. “History of Smallpox”. CDC. 25 July 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.

  12. Microbe hunters, then and now. Medi-Ed Press. 1996. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-936741-11-6.

  13. Henderson, Donald A. (30 December 2011). “The eradication of smallpox – An overview of the past, present, and future”. Vaccine. 29: D8. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.06.080. PMID 22188929.

  14. Henderson, D (2009). Smallpox : the death of a disease. Prometheus Books. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-61592-230-7.

  15. “First Global Estimates of 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Mortality Released by CDC-Led Collaboration | CDC”. www.cdc.gov. 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2020-03-12.

  16. “2014–2016 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (section titled ‘Impact’)”. www.cdc.gov. 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2020-02-14.

  17. “Situation summary Latest available situation summary, 26 June 2015. World Health Organisation (2015-06-19). Retrieved on 2015-06-20”. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2015.

  18. Gignoux, Etienne; Idowu, Rachel; Bawo, Luke; Hurum, Lindis; Sprecher, Armand; Bastard, Mathieu; Porten, Klaudia (2015). “Use of Capture–Recapture to Estimate Underreporting of Ebola Virus Disease, Montserrado County, Liberia”. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 21 (12): 2265–2267. doi:10.3201/eid2112.150756. PMC 4672419. PMID 26583831.