Something that I heard little snippets of in the past year, but never really gave any significance to until this pandemic happened was this theory about the 20s: 20 years after the start of each century there is some sort of illness or outbreak running rampant in the world. I started looking into it recently and it's either some sick coincidence (no pun intended) or the theory is true, especially since this year fell under that pattern as well. I'm not sure how much I believe the theory, but I think it's interesting how they all somehow ended up being on the 20th year of the century.
1720 - Bubonic Plague. The most significant outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1720 was The Great Plague of Marseille which killed about 100,000 people in Marseille, France.
1820 - First cholera outbreak took over many parts of the world. This outbreak started in 1817, but continued through 1823.
1920 - Spanish Flu. Started in 1918, but was still going in 1920. Estimates on the total death toll range from 20 million to 50 million, some estimates even saying 100 million were killed by this strain of the flu.
2020 - COVID-19/coronavirus. I hope you don't need much explanation on this one... So far the coronavirus has infected over half a million people and has killed about 30,000.
Pattern or coincidence? Up to you to decide what you believe, but something to think or debate about with either yourself or with family and friends.
Stay sane!