Pandemics: And How They Change Society

About the Author

Dr Patrick Treacy was awarded ‘Top Aesthetic Practitioner in the World’ (2019) as well as ‘Top Aesthetic Medical Aesthetic Practitioner UK & Ireland’ (2019), earning himself a lifetime achievement place in the My Face My Body Aesthetic Medicine Hall of Fame. He was also given specialist research awards by both the British College of Aesthetic Medicine and the Irish Healthcare Awards, as well as a laureate from the Azerbaijani College of Aesthetic Medicine. He has been cited amongst the ‘Ultimate 100 Global Aesthetic Leaders’ for the past four years.

He is Chairman of the Ailesbury Humanitarian Foundation, previous Chairman of the Royal Society of Medicine Aesthetic Conference Committee (London) and serves on the editorial boards of six international aesthetic journals. Dr Treacy has written extensively about different cultures and their anthropology. He has worked with and written about the Kenyan Maasai, the Outback Australian Aboriginals and the Marsh Arabs in Iraq.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the cherished souls we lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. To the friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances who succumbed to this relentless disease, you will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

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Dr Patrick Treacy 2024

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Acknowledgement

To those people like Brian Beardsley and Grace Dorcilien, whose laughter once filled the room, whose kindness knew no bounds, and whose presence brought joy to our lives, this book is a tribute to your memory. Your absence is deeply felt, but your spirit lives on in the memories we shared.

Foreword

I am writing this foreword in isolation during lockdown in my Dublin home because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic now sweeping across the world. At the beginning of last year, we looked forward to the start of a new decade, and no one even knew that the corona virus or COVID-19 even existed. Now the virus has spread to almost every country, infecting over one hundred and thirty million people with nearly three million deaths. Infectious or transmissible diseases have existed since time immemorial, although the effect of pathogenic microbes in humans has become more problematic since man began farming and planted his food, most probably during the stone age. There is little doubt that the beginning of agriculture changed human history, but the epidemics that this domestication caused changed the social fabric of the society. History shows us that these pandemics often change the world for the better as they tend to shine a light on what is broken in our society and possibly also how to fix it.

The impact of pandemics on society can be both positive and negative, and it depends on various factors and contexts. Pandemics like COVID-19 have significant social, economic, and health consequences that can be challenging to manage. They can lead to a social and economic crisis, affecting societies and economies globally. The repercussions of a pandemic can be severe and far-reaching, impacting various aspects of life, such as employment, education, mental health, and social interactions. They cause great emotional distress as people witness illness and death among their community members. The fear and anxiety associated with the spread of a contagious disease can have a profound psychological impact on individuals and communities. The emotional distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK has been significant. The pandemic has brought about various challenges, including health concerns, economic impact, social isolation, and disruption of daily life. Many individuals have experienced heightened anxiety, stress, and feelings of uncertainty due to the pandemic’s widespread effects on society.

This was recently witnessed by the reaction of the British public to their previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. There have been reports and investigations suggesting that he misled Parliament on certain matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK Members of Parliament (MPs) recently voted to approve a report that recommended sanctioning Boris Johnson for lying to Parliament. The report highlighted instances where Johnson was accused of deliberately misleading Parliament regarding illegal COVID-19 lockdown parties that took place during his tenure as Prime Minister. We must also consider that pandemics can result in economic downturns, loss of income, and disruptions to industries and businesses.

Lockdowns, restrictions, and decreased consumer spending can lead to job losses, financial instability, and widening inequalities within societies. However, it’s important to note that pandemics can also lead to positive outcomes, including strengthening public health systems: Pandemics often prompt a focus on improving public health systems, including disease surveillance, healthcare infrastructure, and research and development. These efforts can enhance preparedness for future health crises and lead to advancements in healthcare practices. They also accelerate scientific and technological advancements: The urgency to find solutions during a pandemic can drive scientific and technological innovations. This can include the development of vaccines, new treatment methods, and advancements in digital health technologies. They tend to increase social solidarity and resilience: Pandemics can foster a sense of solidarity and community resilience. People come together to support one another, show empathy, and implement collective measures to mitigate the spread of the disease. This can strengthen social bonds and build a sense of unity within society. Overall, while pandemics bring significant challenges and disruptions to societies, they also provide opportunities for growth, resilience, and progress in various aspects of public health, scientific research, and social cohesion Pandemics cause harm to societies, mainly because humans continually change their surrounding environment, as cities grow larger and take over territory previously inhabited by animals. Bacteria have been around for 3.5 billion years, viruses for 1.5 billion years and humans only for 130,000 years. Coronaviruses evolved about fifty million years or more, with the recent varieties estimated at about 8000 BCE, thereby implying quite a long period to coevolve with bat and avian species. Twentieth-century technology has led to improved travel, which means microbes can now travel around the world faster than ever. Gone are the days when the voyage from England to India via the Cape of Good Hope with a regiment of soldiers took at least six months, and possibly another three or four months of traveling before they reached their final destination. Nowadays, a non-stop flight time from London to Mumbai takes about one seven hundredths of the time, around nine hours. Ever-expanding cities with larger populations mean respiratory viruses never have had it so good. The world was a vastly different place now than the first decades of the twentieth century. In this period, there were no public health systems and most doctors either worked for themselves or were funded by charities or religious institutions. It meant the people who spread diseases, either because of cramped living conditions or surviving on a poor diet were denied access to any health system at all. The privileged classes often looked down on the peasants and blamed their degeneracy on the cause of the illness, almost similar to the Church in the Middle Ages blaming the sick because God was punishing them as sinners. I witnessed this indifference by whites towards blacks with HIV in South Africa in the early nineties. In 2005, prevalence rates at antenatal clinics showed the disparity with only 0.6% of South African whites being HIV positive compared to 13.3% blacks. Many said, it’s a black person’s disease, mainly because it quickly spread into the black communities by lorry drivers who used the services of prostitutes on the route from the copper mines in Zambia. 2005, prevalence rates at antenatal clinics.

There is evidence that whites totally disassociated themselves from black South Africans during the Spanish Flu in 1918, and this precipitated the first legislative steps towards apartheid. An estimated 500,000 people died in the 1918 flu pandemic in South Africa, the fifth hardest-hit country in the world. By the end of 1918, more than 127,000 Blacks and 11,000 Whites had succumbed to the epidemic. Hence, if we extrapolate these figures, probably 450,000 blacks had died before the pandemic ended. These people most probably became infected from ships bringing back members of the South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC) returning from France. Two ships, the Jaroslav and the Veronej, which arrived in Cape Town with members of the SANLC on board had docked at Sierra Leone, one of the places regarded as a central point of infection. Other historians say there were two waves, the first from the port of Durban, from where it spread to the rest of Natal and the Witwatersrand and the second spread from Cape Town harbour to the rest of the Cape, the Orange Free State, and the Western Transvaal. Not only did these people look down on the less fortunate as vectors of illness, but they also enacted health policies mainly geared to separating society into different e classes, without realising that this only helped to maintain and spread the illness back to them. Not only did they blame the people for their own illnesses, but as mentioned above, they were largely helped by a religious clergy who maintained it was due to the wrath of some God in the sky who was angry with their actions. This theory of disease asserts that pandemics and epidemics are really a punishment sent by an angry God for disobedience amongst his flock. The Church have used this superstitious nonsense to gain an upper hand during all of the previous pandemics (especially the Justinian plague!) and this was one of the reasons they encouraged the burning of libraries and did not want people to have a scientific education. Typhus and cholera ran rampant while priests sold indulgences to help get the dying into some supposed heaven in the sky.

The ‘Spanish’ flu claimed between 50 and 100 million lives, possibly five percent of the global population. Like the Justinian plague gave rise to Christianity, the bubonic plague brought an end to serfdom, the ‘Spanish’ flu in its wake, also brought massive social changes. The 1920s saw many governments embracing the concept of socialised medicine—it began with socialist Russia but quickly spread to France, New Zealand and eventually to Great Britain, although it took the hard-fought soldiers coming back from WW11 to force that politically. After the war, the growing influence of the United States and the fledgling World Health Organisation brought an end to the privileged classes and they set out ambitious fundamental rights of every human being without distinction to some level of proper health care. As we enter the final days of yet another global pandemic, nobody really knows what the future holds or whether the new vaccines will curtail the associated disease. The current COVID-19 pandemic will establish a major anchor point in the twenty-first century, curtailing our ability to travel to other nations. Since the initial HIV/AIDS pandemic started, I have visited most of the nations of central and eastern Africa in some humanitarian role and this is reflected in my previous books. However, it has given me the opportunity to write and contemplate on my life and travels to date, while also depriving me of previously arranged lecturing opportunities in Taipei, Monaco, and Toronto. These past years have been important for me, bringing me many accolades, and I was honoured to be voted Chairman of the Royal Society of Medicine Aesthetics Conference Committee (London). The MyFaceMyBody organisation gave me a specialist award for contributions to aesthetic medicine and I was given multiple awards for work related to my research into wound healing in many nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Mexico, Monaco, Azerbaijan, and Egypt.

People often ask, which was the worse period of all? American medieval historian Michael McCormick who chairs the Harvard University Initiative for the Science of the Human Past gives an interesting view. It wasn’t 1349 when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. Not even 1918, when the flu killed 50 million to 100 million people, mostly young adults. But rather 536AD. In that year, a mysterious fog encircled the earth, plunging Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night and it lasted for eighteen months. Summer temperatures in the summer of 536 AD fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, starting the coldest decade on earth for over two thousand three hundred years. Without sunlight, crops failed and there was a famine in many European countries, including Ireland for the next three years. Snow fell during the summer months in China. The lack of sunlight caused vit D deficiencies and when the bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, Egypt in 541AD, people had weakened immunity and what came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse. This also gave the Churches an opportunity to blame sinners as the cause, and a chance for them to create converts hoping that their intervention would somehow alleviate their symptoms. It is now thought that these ‘Dark Ages’ were actually due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland that spewed ash across the Northern Hemisphere early in 536. This was followed by two other eruptions in 540 and 547. The repeated volcanic eruptions followed by plague plunged Europe into an economic stagnation that lasted until 640. As mentioned, pandemics bring with them times of radical change in their wake. The necessity for remote consultations and healthcare delivery has accelerated the integration of technology into medical practice. Doctors are indicating that certain changes made during the pandemic are likely to be permanent. This includes an increased reliance on personal protective equipment (PPE), changes in patient flow and waiting room setups, and a continued emphasis on infection control measures. In the meantime, I will reflect on where I’ve been and am thankful to have experienced the imaginary world of my childhood. This book is dedicated to all the cherished souls we lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. To the friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances who succumbed to this relentless disease, you will forever hold a special place in our hearts. May this dedication serve as a reminder of the strength, resilience, and love that united us during these challenging times. Each page of this book is dedicated to the lives touched by the pandemic, an everlasting homage to your indomitable spirit and the profound impact you made. In honouring your memory, we strive to build a world that cherishes life, embraces compassion, and values the interconnectedness of our global community. May your legacy inspire us to be kinder, more empathetic, and united in our pursuit of a brighter future.

Though you are no longer physically with us, your presence