Tag: Coronavirus

After the Apocalypse

With Coronavirus cases now over 750,000 worldwide, deaths over 36,000, and many areas of the US and the world under stay at home orders or lockdown, it might seem like we are experiencing the Apocalypse.

Of course, as I pointed out last week, the Coronavirus while dangerous is nowhere near as deadly as the Spanish Flu of 1918. That bug was killing a million people a week and did so for 25 straight weeks.

But no one today remembers the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 102 years ago.

For that matter, no one remembers the Hong Kong Flu Pandemic of 1968, which killed from one to four million people worldwide. Nor does anyone remember the Asian Flu Pandemic of 1957, which also originated in China, and went on to kill from one to four million people worldwide.

Will Coronavirus be as bad as those flu pandemics? At this stage, we don’t know. Sure experts make guesses — and I emphasize guesses — but even the experts don’t really know. No one will until it’s all over.

Pandemics are a staple in the post-apocalyptic writer’s arsenal of weapons available to wipe out humanity.

However, will a pandemic actually do so? That’s debatable. The Black Death, the most deadly disease to hit the Western world, wiped out 60% of Europe’s population — yet civilization marched on.

Personally, I don’t think a pandemic will be the end of the world as we know it. Not unless the bug that causes it is so foreign and fast acting that we won’t be able to respond in time. Something like the Andromeda Strain.

Be that as it may, pandemics have wiped out humanity in fiction many times over. There are those classics such as Earth Abides by George R Stewart, Empty World by John Christopher, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Terry Nation’s TV series and book Survivors, Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, and The Stand by Stephen King.

Indie authors have also jumped on the pandemic bandwagon. Authors such as AJ Newman, Ryan Casey, and AG Riddle.

But as you know, if you are a reader of this blog, I eschew bestsellers. IMO, they usually fail to live up to the hype.

Thus far, I’d have to say the most realistic post-apocalyptic pandemic novels I’ve read are those from the pen of Matthew Cormack.

If you’ve never heard of Matthew Cormack, that’s not surprising. He rather avoids the limelight. He labels himself a “Sunday writer”.

I ran across Mr Cormack in a Facebook writer’s group, where I was looking for some books to read. He offered his book Don’t Dream It’s Over. I read it and loved it. I mean I LOVED IT!!!

Matthew Cormack’s superb world building and very human characters and very realistic situations are what won the day for me.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the initial novel set in the post-apocalyptic world of the Piranha Pandemic. Don’t Dream was followed by Ganbaru, and the just released The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns… (which I’m very much looking forward to reading).

While the 3 novels are set in the same universe, each one is a standalone work.

Cormack writes about people. His books aren’t prepper manuals, or EMP exercises. They are books about people and how they act under extreme duress. His characters and the situations they get into are very real. These are people who could be your next door neighbor or your relatives.

If Coronavirus were to wipe out most of us who are breathing today, I think the world left behind would be very much like the one Matthew Cormack has created.

Next week, I’ll go into a bit more detail about the books themselves.

In the meantime, they’re only 99¢ each. Surely 3 bucks isn’t too much for some truly top-notch experiences in a world that might be. Experiences that will make you sit back and say, “Thank God I live in this world and not that one.”

Here are the links to the books:

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Ganbaru

The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns…

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Panic

I’ve been watching the current panic, and in some quarters, hysteria, over the coronavirus pandemic. Being retired and a homebody, the quarantine measures don’t affect me much at all. I do what I’ve done now for years: write, read, manage my book marketing, watch a little TV, play a game. Oh, I mustn’t forget eating and sleeping — I do those, as well.

That we are in the midst of a pandemic is evident from the more or less worldwide spread of this new virus strain from China.

But, then, we must consider flu — the ordinary flu — a pandemic that occurs every year and we don’t get into much of a flap about it, do we now? And in any given year the flu affects a billion people worldwide, and kills anywhere from 290,000 to 650,000 people. In spite of the flu shot. Granted that isn’t a high mortality rate, but I wouldn’t want to be one of the death numbers.

Thus far (8 am, 23 March 2020), we have 351,083 reported cases worldwide, with 15,337 deaths. And lest we forget, 100,569 have recovered from the disease. The current mortality rate (subject to change, up or down) is 4.4%. That is much higher than the flu, but not as high as some other diseases.

The Ebola outbreak of 2014-16 had a 40% mortality rate. Now THAT is bad. Just imagine if that genie had gotten out of the bottle. What saved the world then, was the fact that the West African nations reported the outbreak right away. Just think if the Chinese had been as honest with the Coronavirus.

SARS is a relative of the Coronavirus, and originated in China. In the SARS pandemic, the mortality rate was 15%. Thank goodness SARS affected far fewer people than Coronavirus.

MERS, originating in Arabia, had a 34% mortality rate. And again, thank goodness, it affected only a small number of people. Otherwise we could have had a genuine catastrophe on our hands.

Of course the 800 pound disease gorilla of modern times was the Spanish Flu of 1918. That affected a third of the world’s population at the time, and killed anywhere from 50 million to 100 million people. At its height, it killed 1 million people a week for 25 weeks running. The Coronavirus stats aren’t anywhere near approaching those numbers. Thank goodness.

The Coronavirus originated in China and so far has affected the Chinese most severely, followed by the Italians, and the Iranians (who were also hard hit by the Spanish Flu). The vast majority of deaths are in those 3 countries. Do keep that in mind.

At present, the percentage of the world’s population that has contracted Coronavirus is .00004%. That is a pretty doggone tiny percentage. The death rate is similarly minuscule.

The Coronavirus is not good, no doubt about it. I don’t want to get it. However, we need to look at this rationally and not emotionally. We aren’t experiencing 40% death rates. Nor are we seeing a million people dying every week.

The actions of the world’s governments may, and I emphasize may, help contain the disease. There’s no reliable data, though, that quarantine is working. The numbers from China’s Communist government can’t be fully trusted because the history of Communist governments shows that they cook the numbers to make themselves look good. And even if quarantine Chinese-style worked, who in the West would want the government imposing those draconian measures? I doubt very many would.

To my mind, though, the greater risk from quarantine measures is shattered economies across the globe. That just might be a bigger issue than the disease itself — affecting far more lives for a far longer period of time.

Every day, around the world, 3,700 people are killed in road traffic accidents. In the 4 months while the Coronavirus has been with us, 447,700 people have died on the world’s roads. Somehow, fifteen thousand deaths doesn’t really compare to nearly half a million. And we do very little to stop the slaughter on our roads. No one has yet to propose we ban motor vehicles. Even the consideration would be considered ludicrous.

Perspective my friends. Reasoned and rational perspective. Coronavirus is bad. There is no cure. But there are many things that have been and are far worse.

Take the same precautions as you would with the flu. The means of spreading are essentially the same. And remember, this disease primarily kills old people. Like me. Don’t panic. Use common sense.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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