Adil Hussain Rather
It’s narrated in Sahi Bukhari : The Prophet said, If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place. History repeats itself coronavirus is not ist pandemicvirusin world. In1400 AD plague (tawun) came in world by which 20 crore people died and The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 through December 1920, it infected 500 million people about a quarter of the world’s population. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest catastrophic in human history.Coronavirus hundred years after the emergence of Spanish Flu, the world is now reeling under coronavirus scare. Looking back at the tragic events that transpired last hundred year, one can’t help but wonder what the world has in store in this cycle. The two models saint Louis model and phildelphia plague model .Both models are being discussed on national and international level by health organization’s and finally they started to work on saint Louis model. Today if we see the world map, all the countries are being closed due to pandemic. But the question arises what is the saint Louis model? For this let’s look into its background. In 1918 when the Spanish flu was plaguing the entire country, Philadelphiaand St. Louisplague cases occurred in cities. Both the boards of cities held meeting’s at that time. Philadelphia mayor, THOMAS B SMITH, was careless and inattentive. He said in the board meeting that this plague is simple which came and will vanish easily. This plague is not as dangerous as it often comes and is cured easily. People don’t need to worry; rather they should carry on their normal routine work. On his decision few members started opposing the mayor but, he did not pay any heed to them. Unfortunately the disease spread among civilians in Philadelphia and was reported on September 17, 1918.But the then authorities downplayed their significance and allowed large public gatherings, notably a city-wide parade on September 28, 1918, to continue. School closure, ban on public gatherings, and other social distancing interventions were not implemented until October 3, when disease spread had already begun to overwhelm local medical and public health resources. The members opposed and mayor did not consult their suggestions and remain on his point. In contrast ,when Spanish plaguecases occurred, the board mayor held meeting and decided to stop the celebration of Saint Patrick day and all public gatherings ,schools ,colleges , buses, trains, shopping malls, fruit markets and funerals .Mayor ordered police to close all religious places ,people didn’t pay attention but the mayor tried hard to keep them inside their homes .Situation of silence was established in such a way that if anybody would make sound through his house window, it could be heard from at half way of the city . Police kept patrolling on streets, even not a single dog was seen and shut down remained for two months. The effect of both the decisions (saint Louis and Philadelphia)started to come on ground .Philadelphia plague started growing and created great loss ,near about 60 thousand people died . Even every household had a death body to lament upon. Priests were not ready for funerals and management started to burn the dead bodies .The authorities tried hard to cut Philadelphia from other parts of city, although plague had hit them too. if we see the graph of 1918 and 1919 of Philadelphia and saint Louis pandemics there we see ,the Philadelphia plague increasing and Saint Louis one decreasing.
Finally the Spanish plague ended in 1919 in America .Both pandemics gaveworld two theories Thomas B smith and Henry Kiel, Henry Kiel became hero for implementation of his nationwide shutdown opinion. It’s a 100 years after the Spanish flu devastation that was witnessed, now it’s thought that coronavirus here perhaps marks the pandemic scripted for 2020. Both UNO and WHOgave support to the formula of Henry kiel, which is being used by world to stop this viral pandemics.
Few points to keep in mind regarding this pandemic virus.
1. This type of viral pandemics have not occurred for the first time, they have impacted people in the previous centuries also. Mass deaths occurred but then authorities took intelligent measures to stop it.
2. Nowadays the statement of then Iraqi president Sadam Hussain, 1991 is viral on social networks that America had already warned them for injecting pandemic virus in Iraq .Both these facts are true because both the virus are present in world for 70 years .if we see, generally in a year , we get infected 1-2 times but sick gets cured within 2-3 days. Now a days covid-19 is a new pandemic virus which we are not capable to stop. Dear readers world is worried about this pandemic virus for three reasons.
1. We don’t know how it spreads.
2. How much it will affect human being , Medical experts are saying that it will not resist high temperature , so when our body temperature reaches up to 30°, it will die. But could it be possible to stop or it may adopt itself by changing itself within changing temperatures.
3. World has not yet invented any dose / vaccine, medicine against the virus.
Thus we have to make efforts to know it’s origin symptoms and circumstances.Dear readers our country has not that much of heath facilities and standards to stop such viral infections at once .Thus the world has to act intelligently like that of Henry kiel in order to avoid major destructions. world heath organization is trying hard to stop this virus and we too have to start from our own level. We must take take precautionary measures devised by health departments to minimise the viral infection.
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