Book On Past Pandemics To Be Released In The Midst Of COVID-19

It tells the history of pandemics and other similar events from  ancient times to the present.                                                               

 

Frederick, Md (KM) A book that tells the story of plagues and pandemics over the centuries is being released. “Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19” describes the history of these events over thousands of years.

Author Heather Quinlan says she started her book about two years ago, and while doing her research and writing, the coronavirus pandemic began. She could not ignore what was happening around her, and felt like she was writing on the go. “It feels like the news changes from day to day, and indeed in some cases it does,” Quinlan says. “But in other cases, it has stayed the same in terms of what the virus is and in its basic level.”

While she was preparing the book, Quinlan says she had an opportunity to interview Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He told her the development of a vaccine to COVID-19 shouldn’t be a rush job because that could make the virus more dangerous. “It needs to be tested repeatedly. It needs to go through several trials. You’re dealing with a virus and viruses constantly mutate. That’s why you need a new flu vaccine every winter because the flu virus mutates,” she says.

One constant Quinlan says she has learned from her research is that we are not in control during a pandemic. “As powerful as we are as a country, as a people, we are powerless against something we can’t even see. And that’s really hard for  people to grasp, but it’s true,” she says.

In some ways history can repeat itself, especially when it comes to a political leader talking down a deadly virus which is impacting the nation and the world; and then he himself ends up getting the virus. Quinlan says President Woodrow Wilson tried to ignore the flu pandemic of 1918 which was affecting the country as it was engaged in World War I. “He wanted spirits to remain high due to World War I. He had run for re-election  {in 1916}  on the platform of  not sending our boys overseas to fight a foreign war and then that’s exactly what he ended up doing. And he himself and FDR both caught the flu as a matter of fact,” say Quinlan.

Franklin-D-Roosevelt was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy at that time.

The book, “Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses:   From The Plague of Athens to COVID-19” is expected to be released on November 1st.

 

By Kevin McManus