The Epidemic Pattern

To some extent, humanity gets predictable. Scientists and psychologists are able to study the human mind to some extent, and they can map out some aspects of one’s behaviour or response to the environment. However, it doesn’t take a psychologist to see how humanity responds to the spread of sickness. Whenever a disease or illness spreads far and wide and becomes an epidemic, there seems to be a pattern in how every human institution (media, government, public-health systems) responds to the spread of contagious diseases. The Atlantic’s Karl Taro Greenfeld states that the pattern that an epidemic follows are denial, panic, fear, and rational response: 

If you want to panic, go right ahead. It’s what we do. It’s what your ancestors did. Then be afraid. Eventually, however, roll up your sleeves and get to work, scrubbing this bug back to whatever its host species happens to be. We’ll get there. Humanity has so far survived every microbe that has jumped the species barrier, and we will survive this one.

image via The Atlantic