systlin:findingfeather:birdblogwhichisforbirds:From Ada Palmer’s discord ama todayAs a historian I’m
systlin:findingfeather:birdblogwhichisforbirds:From Ada Palmer’s discord ama todayAs a historian I’m awed by how GREAT a job humanity is doing now, the first pandemic where we’ve understood hygiene, hand-washing, where we’ve had actions we could take. In 1918 they didn’t even discuss delaying the election because there was nothing they could’ve done to make it safer even if they did, they didn’t know enough about how the diesease spread to disinfect stuff or anything. I know we’re focusing a lot on the mistkaes that are being made and the’re HUGE mistakes, but since my head is usually in the pre-modern world I sit in awe at how much we’re doing, how sure we are we can handle it together as a species, how empowered we are, and how much we’re reaching out and being warm and helping each other. Some governments are botching, individuals, but the collective is doing one of the most impressive things any species has ever done in the history of this planet. We just need to kee preminding ourselves of that.<3I CANNOT EMPHASIZE HOW TRUE THIS IS. The death toll in 1918 was, all told, fifty million, three percent of the entire world population. The death toll so far from COVID-19 is 190,000. Which is still a lot, and terribly sad and tragic, and the response has been botched in many places, and we can do better, in so many ways, but. But that is a tiny number, compared to the last time we faced something like this, and the population is vastly bigger now than a hundred years ago. That is astounding, and if we keep pulling together and following health authority recommendations we can make death tolls of millions from pandemics a permanent thing of the past. -- source link