Things Have Always Been Terrible

A series in which I make you feel less lonely, realizing how many other pandemics humans have lived through. European Malaria Epidemics of 1805-12 and 1823-27 Luck, that tricky bitch, has us looking at an entry adjacent to yesterday’s. Did you get enough of European malaria yesterday? Sorry, but there’s more! Just when you thought […]

Things Have Always Been Terrible

A series in which I make you feel less lonely, realizing how many other pandemics humans have lived through. European Malaria Epidemic of 1678-82 The Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence describes some people as being “exhausted to death with recurring episodes of malaria.” I was like, I hear that. Although as an American, I generally […]

Things Have Always Been Terrible

A series in which I make you feel less lonely, realizing how many other pandemics humans have lived through. Somalian Cholera Epidemic of 1998-2000 Today I chose page 353, and there were two options: the Solomon Islands Polio Epidemic of 1951, and the Somalian Cholera Epidemic of 1998. I went with a new geographic area, […]

Things Have Always Been Terrible

A series in which I make you feel less lonely, realizing how many other pandemics humans have lived through. I found a book that the library had removed from its collection, entitled Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence, Third Edition, edited by George Childs Kohn. It impressed me by having 454 pages of terrible things that […]