Author: Kyle Harper
Affiliation: University of Oklahoma.
Organization/Publisher: Foreign Policy
Date/Place: April 6, 2020/ USA
Type of Literature: Argument
Word Count: 2531
Link:https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/06/coronavirus-is-accelerating-history-past-the-breaking-point/
Keywords: Pandemic, Infectious Diseases, COVID-19, Transformation
Brief:
Kyle Harper argues that every era has its own infectious diseases with its own political upheaval as a result. Harper begins with presenting Ibn Khaldun’s observations regarding universal laws of social dynamics and that infectious diseases played their part in historical change. He further presents examples from the Roman Empire and the Medieval Ages in the context of infectious diseases, plagues and the way how they spread, and adds that ecologically “every age gets the infectious diseases it deserves.” Although agricultural science, public policy, vaccines, and antibiotics helped to control the spread of diseases, the “conquest” of the microbes has never been greater and infectious diseases have never accelerated as much as in these times of high human interconnectivity. COVID-19 has a “relatively” low mortality rate compared to other historic pandemics and diseases, such as HIV with its destructive effect, the “everlasting-mutant” influenza (which makes it hard to combat), smallpox, measles, yellow fever, and malaria. However, the impact of COVID-19, be it socially, economically, and geopolitically, makes this pandemic the first in the age of digitalization with its very own challenges. Labor markets, supply-chains, an economy dependent on consumption, and sovereign debt are all simultaneously facing disruption from the impact of COVID-19. As the author concludes, these incidents can be opportunities, since the past has taught us that pandemics, shocks and other big crises often paved the way for “transformation and change—and sometimes even progress.”
By: Dilek Yücel-Kamadan, CIGA Research Associate
