Fear of disease and death – from the variola virus once to COVID-19 today

Abstract

Throughout history, diseases have had a major impact on the development and prosperity of humankind. They arouse attention due to their mass occurrence, high mortality rates among the affected, and the far-reaching consequences caused. Due to the fear of loss of health and life, illness and death have always been an essential preoccupation for humans. During the past, great epidemics have decided the fate of individual nations, weakened the strength of large and powerful armies, caused hunger and misery. Epidemics of smallpox, plague, malaria, syphilis, cholera, epidemic typhus, and tuberculosis have marked history and been a constant companion to human suffering over many centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century there was the Spanish flu, called the „mother of all pandemics”, and by the end of the century, the appearance of AIDS frightened the world. It is clear that even in the new millennium, disease poses a strong and constant threat to society and continues to be one of the greatest killers in the world, with approximately 15 million people per year dying of infectious diseases today. The rapid appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest epidemic in the 21st century, has brought the world to its knees. Even wealthy nations and statesmen have not been bypassed. This fear is certainly becoming more justified with the assessment of the World Health Organization that humanity is in grave and terrible danger. One thing is certain: the occurrence of an epidemic prompts us to think deeply about the future, which quickly becomes uncertain, all plans disrupted, and goals shifted and slowed.