Introduction

This book looks at the history and psychology of pandemics and how to cope. Pandemics have been endemic since biblical times. Different personality types will react differently, especially to isolation. Introverts may sometimes find it easier to manage because they will feel less pressure to fit in with others than before. Extroverts will find it harder. The book looks at the effects of social isolation on children and family life, and economic worries. For about a century, as reported in Scientific American in 2018, scientists have changed their minds over what viruses are. First they were seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then as biological chemicals. Today they are placed in a grey area between living and non-living. In the last 30 years we have seen a number of frightening viruses such as AIDS, SARS and Ebola. These may be the only biological entities that researchers can actually see come into being, providing a real-time example of evolution in action.