Georgia Director, Curtis Parrott
Editorial, Georgia News

Inside Notes: Life is a Fight

May 16, 2020
Georgia Director, Curtis Parrott
Georgia Director, Curtis Parrott

Life is a fight on a daily basis. People are in a fight not only with each other, but with something we can’t even see, dreaded and debilitating diseases. While watching the national news during the stay at home order I sometimes wonder when the other shoe will drop. It’s like watching a horror movie when we were young. When the really scary parts came up, we would cover our eyes, only to part our fingers so we could see the carnage. We just couldn’t help ourselves; we just had to see what was happening.

I am a believer that our past history dictates our future events. Plague is nothing new. We have had many in our past history. Humans are in a constant battle with the viruses and bacteria of the world. It is a war of epic proportions with nature. Everything in this world is fighting with everything else to survive. It’s not personal; it’s just nature and the will to survive. To give you an idea of the fight mankind has experienced, here is a list of past plagues, A.D.:

  • Antonine Plague, 165-180 A.D., It was believed to be caused by either smallpox or measles, 5 million people died.
  • Japanese smallpox epidemic, 735-737 A.D., A variola major virus, 1 million people died.
  • Plague of Justinian, 541-542 A.D., a Yersina pestis bacteria caused by rats and fleas, 30 to 50 million people died.
  • The Black Death, 1347-1351 A.D., Yersinia pestis bacteria caused by rats, 200 million people died.
  • New world Smallpox, 1520-Present A.D., Variola major virus, 56 million people died.
  • The Great Plague of London, 1665 A.D., a Yersina pestis bacteria caused by rats and fleas, 100,000 people.
  • The Italian Plague, 1629-1631 A.D., a Yersina pestis bacteria caused by rats and fleas, 1 million people died.
  • The Cholera Pandemics 1-6, 1817-1923 A.D. , V. cholera bacteria, 1 million+ people died.
  • The Third Plague, 1885 A.D., a Yersina pestis bacteria caused by rats and fleas, 12 million people died in China and India.
  • Yellow Fever, late 1800s A.D., virus/Mosquitoes, 100,000-150,000 (U.S.) died.
  • Russian Flu, 1889-1890 A.D., Believed to be H2N2 (avian origin), 1 million people died.
  • Spanish Flu, 1918-1919 A.D., H1N1 virus/Pigs, 40-50 million people died.
  • Asian Flu, 1957-1958 A.D., H2N2 virus, 1.1 million people died.
  • Hong Kong Flu, 1968-1970 A.D., H3N2 virus, 1 million people died.
  • HIV/AIDS, 1981-Present A.D., Virus/Chimpanzees, 25-35 million people have died so far.
  • Swine Flu, 2009-2010 A.D., H1N1 virus/Pigs, 200,000 people died.
  • SARS, 2002-2003 A.D., Coronavirus/Bats, Civets, 770 people died.
  • Ebola, 2014-2016 A.D. Ebolavirus/Wild Animals, 11,000 people died.
  • MERS, 2015-Present A.D, Coronavirus/Bats and Camels, 850 people died so far.

COVID-19 Virus, 2019-Present A.D, Coronavirus, almost 200,000 worldwide is being reported so far, if the numbers are correct. There have been so many lies about these numbers; it’s hard to know who to believe anymore. Don’t trust the major news media, they have lost their minds trying to cover a 24 hour news cycle.

That’s a grand total of approximately 500,000 million people, give or take. Sadly a lot of folks have lost their lives to viruses and bacterial infections. The world population was a lot lower at the start of these statistics. Here are the numbers (estimated):

  • 190 Million – 0 A.D.
  • 600 Million – 1700.
  • 990 Million – 1800.
  • 2 Billion – 1928.
  • 3 Billion – 1960.
  • 4 Billion – 1975.
  • 5 Billion – 1987.
  • 6 Billion – 1999.
  • 7 Billion – 2001.
  • 7.7 Billion – 2019.
  • 7.8 Billion – 2020.

What is the Coronavirus COVID-19 version in a nutshell? It’s a novel (new) coronavirus strain that has not been previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses transmitting between animals and people that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV). This particular virus is a really nasty one.

New scientific research has now suggested that SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19, could have already mutated into more than 30 separate strains. One strain, for example, appeared to generate 270 times the viral load, meaning the infected person produces 270 times as much of the virus, than the least potent strain. That makes it far harder to fight off infections and facilitates spread, hypothetically explaining why some cases of COVID-19 are significantly worse than others.

COVI-19 is just another virus and we don’t have any immunity built-up in our bodies yet to fight it. None of us are invincible, viruses and bacteria don’t care about us as humans. Personal hygiene, social distancing and safe practices are the only way to beat these killers.

Keep the Faith!