Earlier this month, G7 leaders called for a “timely, transparent, expert-led, science-based, WHO-convened” investigation into the origins of the Newcastle pneumonia outbreak, including in China, as recommended by the expert report. There is no doubt that the Newcastle pneumonia epidemic had a profound impact on global geopolitics; but it was not the first time the epidemic affected the international political landscape.
Like Newcastle pneumonia, the origins of the Black Death are also subject to debate: some say it originated in East Asia (the Great Yuan Empire and the Tianshan Mountains), others say it originated in Central Asia; but what is certain is that the disease was already prevalent in the East as early as 1346. The Black Death spread throughout Europe around the 1440s, killing about 75-200 million people worldwide, making it the deadliest epidemic in human history; it is estimated that 30-60% of the total population of medieval Europe died from the Black Death during the outbreak of the plague.
The Black Death had a severe impact on the European population, changing the social structure of Europe and shaking the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Europe at the time. Whether or not the epidemic has caused the world to speed up the siege of China is still inconclusive; but what is certain is that the epidemic will certainly turn the international landscape upside down, and a new round of global collaboration is slowly unfolding!
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