The coronavirus has already killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide. Yet its death rate is still at a relatively small percentage of the population and targets mostly the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions that make their immune systems compromised.
But what happens if the coronavirus gets deadlier? Could we see the end of the world?
With hospital emergency rooms, morgues and funeral homes already overwhelmed, a virus that emerges or mutates from an existing threat could throw the world into a nightmare. Supply chains will break down, law and order will be thrown out the window as first responders protect their own families, and desperate people will do anything to make sure they survive.
It’s happened already in this country, as survivors of the New Orleans aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will attest. All of those scenarios happened in that city, as survival became a matter of self-action for many.
Some experts say the Covid-19 lockdowns are just a preview of what’s to come.
Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976, said humanity faces an unknown number of new viruses.
He told CNN, “We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out. And that's what constitutes a threat for humanity.” He added that future pandemics could be worse and more apocalyptic.
The big fear is the emergence of more so-called “zoonotic diseases,” defined as those that jump from animals to humans. These already include rabies, Lyme disease, yellow fever and Ebola. It may even include HIV, which some claim was passed from apes to man through the consumption of bush meat.
As human populations grow and encroach on animal habitats, rats and other animals will move into greater contact with humanity.
SARS, MERS and the Covid-19 virus are all coronaviruses that potentially jumped to humans. There’s also the bubonic plague, which was attributed to rats arriving on ships.
Although Hollywood depicts a world where brave men and women stand by to come up with a solution if an epidemic breaks out, the reality is far grimmer. It makes sense to have at least some disaster preparations on hand in case that imagined world becomes reality. And, like Covid-19, it will likely arrive without warning.