We are all too familiar with COVID-19. It affected all of our lives. Businesses were shuttered. Schools were closed. Restaurants went out of business. Customers went from shopping in stores to buying online. The world turned upside down.
Then there were the personal requirements to stay safe. We had to wear masks, wash hands and use sanitizer, keep a respectable distance from others and, in general, not breathe the air that someone else had exhaled.
For many of us today, the pandemic seems over. Look around and not many folks are wearing masks or bothering with social distancing. My chiropractor has a big sign on his office door that requests patients to use the hand sanitizer upon entering the office. I have observed precious few doing so.
My personal trainer, Rissa Fitness, wipes down with disinfectant everything others touched before my entering the gym, and everything I touched when I leave. It is hard to come by others who are as careful not to spread COVID — or any other virus, for that matter.
Now comes the next pandemic. This is the one that is projected to be as infectious as COVID but a lot more lethal. Some consider that COVID is nothing in comparison with what could be just around the corner.
There have been 107 million COVID cases reported in the United States, plus those not reported. Of that number 1.16 million have died. More than 21 million still suffer the effects of long COVID and will likely continue suffering from this disease for years to come. As bad as these numbers are, it might be a drop in the bucket compared to the next round.
COVID is related to other diseases caused by similar coronaviruses. SARS and MERS are two of them which are far more deadly. SARS is twice as deadly as COVID and MERS is seven times as deadly.
There is no evidence that the next virus that develops naturally or is developed in a lab somewhere won’t be the killer that COVID might have become. These pathogens can be highly transmissible and quite deadly. COVID’s infectious capability has evolved and become more efficient in the past four years. It is now near the top of contagious diseases, right up there with influenza and measles.
In addition to the ultra-transmissible Omicron variant of COVID and the super lethality of the Delta variant, only the good Lord knows what else is evolving or being developed experimentally or as a weapon.
Of course, the problem is that we have discovered that our society is quite adverse to pandemic restrictions, no matter how many lives they might save, and how many might be protected from long-term infection and illness. If COVID evolution were to erupt and threaten our population, would we continue to fight against restrictions, roll-over and accept illness and death under the guise of personal freedom, or would we actually do what is required to protect ourselves?
The threat is that a new variant could appear tomorrow, and we are not ready. Rules designed to protect us and government infrastructure have been dismantled. Meanwhile the COVID coronavirus is evolving and the next pathogen to cause a pandemic might not be something we have seen before. Even then, there are strains of other viruses biding their time as they evolve before taking their toll in American lives.
For example, the fatality rate of each of these 10 known viruses far exceeds that of COVID, which is horrendous itself: Marburg, Ebola, hantavirus, bird flu, Lassa fever, Junin, Crimea-Congo, Machupo, Kyasanur Forest and Dengue fever. Although they are prevalent in geographic regions outside the United States, there is nothing to say that they could not be transplanted here by accident, error or act of war.
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Marburg is the most dangerous of the known viruses with a fatality rate of 90%. It causes hemorrhagic fever, convulsions and bleeding of mucous membranes, skin and organs.
Ebola is prevalent across the continent of Africa, and it too has a mortality rate of 90%. Hantavirus caused lung disease, fever and kidney failure among infected American soldiers during the Korean War.
Bird flu has a human mortality rate of 70% with known strains spread through contact with poultry. Lassa is transmitted by rodents. Once it infects a critical mass of rodents, it spreads to human populations.
Junin causes hemorrhagic fever with tissue inflammation, sepsis and skin bleeding. Crimea-Congo is transmitted by ticks.
Machupo causes high fever and heavy bleeding. Kyasanur Forest virus causes high fever, strong headaches, muscle pain and bleeding. Dengue fever affects up to 100 million people each year at holiday destinations in Thailand and India.
And these viruses are the ones scientists have identified and studied. There are others. As the world we know shrinks, it becomes a more dangerous place.
It would be comforting to know that we had the foresight to prepare for the next wave.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. The firm provides enterprise-level cloud-software for communicating, specifying, approving, procuring, producing, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, packaging, promo, marketing and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at[email protected].
