PLAGUES OF HISTORY
Epidemic and pandemic
As part of the normal ebb and flow of background infectious diseases, an epidemic will sometimes arise. An epidemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease, mostly confined to a local area. The word comes from the Greek epi meaning “upon”, and demos meaning “people”. Occasionally, an epidemic will break loose to spread across much of the world. This is called a “pandemic”, from pan meaning “all”.
Why does this happen? Evolution?
The answer can be found in the famous quote from the movie The Godfather: “It’s not personal; it’s just business.” We humans might think we’re the crowning achievement of evolution because we’ve invented literature, nuclear weapons and income tax. But evolution doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be good enough. And sometimes good enough excludes humans.
We’ve shared our ecosystems for hundreds of thousands
