Pandemics have plagued the world for centuries. While the 2020–2021 pandemic is often viewed as a time unlike any other, in fact, the current pandemic has joined a long history of global pandemics. Dating back 700 years, each has profoundly altered social and economic activity in the decades that followed (see Jordà, Singh, and Taylor 2020). The current pandemic will likely be very similar.
What gives the 2020–2021 pandemic a unique flavor is the very rapid appearance of life-saving science and technology delivering vaccines and antiviral drugs, limiting illness and death. The availability of a robust global technology network also uniquely allowed many to work from home and to shop in comfort, ...
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