The pandemic of 2020, our first panhuman event

The pandemic of 2020, our first panhuman event

Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at UC Irvine, noted that past and current mass biological threats, such as HIV-AIDS or endemic tuberculosis, are not characterized by the same sort of “insidious” threat that COVID-19 brings in broader society. … In the sphere of public health, and where it intersects with the collective consciousness, Noymer said that in mid-January 2020 he spent “two weeks arguing on Twitter” with people who were downplaying the looming threat of COVID-19, until each of them — and each of us — had “that holy crap” moment when we realized “this is real.”