How Does a Pandemic End? Let's Go Back In History

In 1918 the Spanish Flu broke out, it was one of the worst pandemics in recent history, 500 million were infected with the virus, it was an influenza pandemic, the respiratory system of the sick person was attacked by the virus, no vaccine or medicine was ever made against the Spanish Flu, and no effective antiviral drug can be given to patients then.

As a result, more than 50 million people worldwide die from unknown virus, with an estimated 70,000 to 90,000 deaths in the Philippines, to prevent the spread of the disease.

According to Dr. Francis Gealogo, "In the Philippines, because we have been a Spanish colony for a long time, we have the same idea of quarantine, the idea of limiting social interaction, banning gatherings, or mass gatherings."

In 1919, after more than a year, the case of the Spanish Flu was gradually declining because some of the victims had died, others had become immune to the disease, the virus had not disappeared.

People in the world just adjusted with the Spanish Flu. The virus also evolved into different species the following year, but fewer cases have been reported.

This is how the Spanish Flu pandemic ended. Let's fast forward to 1945, in that year the vaccine was invented, for influenza.

Imagine, 27 years before the vaccine discovered, but that does not mean that they did not go in for 27 years, did not work, were paralyzed, because it really depends on how society will deal with how it ends, the point will come that they will get tired and afraid people in a pandemic.

Although the disease has not completely disappeared, there is no panic, according to Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. HIV / AIDS is one of the infectious diseases that has a social ending.

There are diseases that until now those people do not know when it will end. Although there is still stigma against the people living with the virus, but more and more people now who are aware of HIV, who are aware of the transmission, and somehow the stigma gets to be diminished.

In the 1957 Asian Flu pandemic, the vaccine was the answer to prevent the disease from getting worse. The disease started in China and spread to other countries, the experts immediately developed vaccines then, because they have already studied the virus flu group.

In April 1957, Maurice Hilleman's group found out that there was an Asian Flu outbreak in Hong Kong. They already know other strains of the virus.

The number of sick people and the number of deaths from it gradually decreased. More than 1 million people have died as a result of this pandemic. Smallpox also ended up being an effective vaccine. Body rashes are the most common symptom of the disease, almost none of which have developed this disease due to the vaccine invented against it.

Experts call it "Medical Ending" when a pandemic ends because the number of people infected with the disease decreases and dies from it, as happened in the Smallpox pandemic. This is the first disease that people eradicated according to the World Health Organization.

We have learned a lot from various pandemics in history but the most important thing here is to put the public interest first in any field.

Let's go back to COVID-19, how can we overcome it? Will Vaccine also end this Pandemic? Vaccination is just one measure. We need to change our ways of thinking, we need to change our behavior, be positive person and this pandemic ending. 

No vaccine has yet been discovered against Covid-19, and it is said that it will not be rushed because it needs to be safe. According to DOST, their vaccine trial will take six months to a year, not sure if the results will be positive, we may lose our panic and fear of COVID-19 before COVID-19 disappears. 

It is more challenging to answer the question on how, how do we end it? We'd like to believe that the government cannot do it alone, we need to work towards ensuring that there is no barrier.