20 Facts You Need to Know About Pandemics

The 1968 Hong Kong Flu left more than one million dead worldwide, and doctors recommended those ill to stay at home and take aspirin, tea, lemon drinks, whiskey or brandy according to taste.

During the terrifying cholera epidemic of 1835- 1836, the island of Sardinia was the only Italian region to escape cholera, thanks to surveillance by armed men who had orders to prevent, by force, any ship that attempted to disembark persons or cargo on the coast.

The 1925 diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska probably affected at least 100 natives because the natives would bury their children without reporting the deaths.

During the first SARS epidemic of 2002, to help revive its economy Toronto hosted a concert called SARSstock which was attended by 500,000 people and headlined by The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Justin Timberlake, Rush, and others. It is the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history.

During the 1813-1814 Malta plague epidemic, concealing infection and moving between districts were made capital offenses.

During the Revolutionary war, the smallpox epidemic threatened the troops of George Washington very badly but he forbade inoculating troops fearing that doing so would make too many sick and leave the army without sufficient strength. Washington himself had been exposed when young making him immune.

The origin of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa was traced to a 2-year-old child who died on December 6, 2013, in the village of Méliandou in southern Guinea. The child may have contracted Ebola from eating fruit contaminated by a fruit bat.

The Bubonic plague, the cause of the Black Death, is still around. Congo, Madagascar, and Peru have several cases a year. Isolated cases occur in China as well.

The Moscow plague riot of 1771 was caused by an outbreak of bubonic plague. The city's economy was mostly paralyzed because industries had closed down. All of this was followed by acute food shortages, leading to huge crowds rioting, and demands for the elimination of quarantines.

The Bubonic Plague is still around. There was an outbreak in Madagascar in 2017 with 341 cases, and recently in 2019, a cat in the United States contracted the disease.