Help us keep OnCuba alive here If we want to be brief, the answer is “we don’t know.” Still, we can look at what has happened in other similar situations. Last century there were three influenza pandemics. The one in 1918 was the deadliest. It developed in three waves: in the spring of 1918, in the autumn of that year and in the winter of 1919. The second one was really virulent and deadly, during which 64% of deaths occurred. In reality, the first wave was the least strong: it was responsible for 10% of the deaths from that pandemic. In the second wave, changes in the virus genome have been documented that could explain why it was more virulent. In 1957, a new influenza virus appeared that caused the “Asian flu,” which also occurred in three epidemic waves: the first in the spring-summer of 1957 and with a relatively low incidence, the second in early 1958 and the third in winter between 1958 and 1959. Mortality was highest in the second two waves. Ten years later, in 1968, a new flu virus caused the so-called “Hong Kong flu,” whose spread was slower and more irregular: it started in autumn-winter...

Whether we classify the new coronavirus as a pandemic or not, the issue is serious. Its importance should not be minimized. In less than two months it has spread over several continents, but the virus doesn't care what we call it. A pandemic implies a sustained, effective, continuous and simultaneous transmission of the disease in more than three different geographical regions. We may already be in that phase, but that is not synonymous with death, since the term does not refer to the lethality of the pathogen but to its transmissibility and geographical extension. We are undoubted suffering from a pandemic of fear. For the first time in history we are experiencing the evolution of an epidemic in real time: all the media, several times a day, every day, all over the planet, talk about the coronavirus. We follow live each case one by one. It has even been front-page news that in Brazil the virus has mutated three times! I insist: the issue is serious, but one of the first victims of the coronavirus in Spain has been the Ibex35. You have to report what is happening, but we also need good news. Here are ten of them. We...