Covid-19

Today is April 4th, 2020 and there is a trendy topic in the news these days, COVID-19 crisis. It seems really paradoxical that a microscopic virus can cause so much pain, panic, and damage at all levels. However, people around the world are locked up in their homes, all non-critical businesses are closed and the disease still keeps spreading, infecting millions of people, and killing thousands.
COVID-19 is the name coined to this virus by the epidemiologists. It means that it belongs to the Coronavirus family (COVI, D stands for Disease), and it was first detected in 2019. Its origin is located in the city of Wuhan (China). Apparently, it is a virus that used to infect animals, but it found the way to reach human beings too.
At the beginning of this pandemic, most countries (I mean their leaders, and most citizens) did not take it seriously enough, causing the spread of the virus to accelerate and collapsing health systems in many countries. More than 3 months after the beginning of the outbreak, more than 1 million people infected worldwide, and more than 60000 people confirmed killed by the virus, unprecedented measures have been taken in most countries around the globe to try to contain the spreading, and to give a break to the health systems, putting aside the economic crisis that all experts (and not experts) are predicting for years to come.
After all the information published by serious sources, and all the fake news that are flooding the internet during last months it is quite clear that the main problem with this virus is the way it spreads (it is highly contagious and people with no symptoms may be able to infect others in close contact). Because of this aggressive behavior, and its mortality rate (between 2 and 5 percent), health systems around the world are struggling to cope with this unexpected (at least for most people, not for the experts) enemy. The most vulnerable are the elderly, and people who present previous pathologies, and the rest of the population should be more careful than ever when being in contact with them. The only way to fight this plague is to stay isolated at home, keep the distance with other people, wash our hands often, to be aware of the emergency rules and health authorities' recommendations. Eventually, researchers will find a cure, and this nightmare will come to an end, but the best predictions say that it will not happen this year.
Apart from the obvious consequences of the pandemic (people infected and killed), there are plenty of other huge consequences in all sectors of society. Economic, social and political aftermath will be severe, and very traumatic decisions will be made by governments to make their countries get through this period avoiding their citizens as much suffering as possible, a lot of things will change after the end of this tragic event in our history, and we will have to deal with it with patience.
Only time will tell us how historians will put down in words this episode of World history.

Keep yourselves safe!