Traumatized Nation marches Washington 57 years later 

from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Collaborative writing done by 10º H on Teams during COVID-19 lockdown

Pandemics in history

Many people in the world are currently living under lockdown.

The Black Death

 

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It is not the first time that human beings have to live during a pandemic situation. That is why I am going to tell you more about a pandemic that may have been the most devastating pandemic recorded in human history - the Black Death. The Black Death had its origin in Asia and came to Europe through the various routes of  european merchant ships. The peak of this pandemic was around the second half of the 14th century and is estimated to have killed between 75 and 200 million people. - Marta de Matos, n.º 21

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This plague, as Marta wrote, was one of the most devastating and deathful pandemics in History. The symptoms of the disease were fever, vomiting, pain and weakness. The death toll was about 90 to 95%, so almost everyone that was infected died as a result of the disease. These people who were infected contracted the Yersinia pestis (the bacterial strain) because of the filthy environment in which everyone lived. There weren't any hygiene conditions, so people used to live amongst rats and fleas that could easily transmit bacteria and viruses. - Margarida Sá Machado, n.º 17

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One of the major consequences that this plague brought was the high number of deaths, as Marta and Margarida have already mentioned, but there were many other consequences at the economic and social level. Economically, wages soared in response to a shortage of labor and many workers, artisans and craftsmen did suffer a reduction in real incomes. On the other hand, the survivors of the pandemic found that the prices of food were lower and that lands were more abundant. Socially, one theory that has been advanced was that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death resulted in a shift in the people’s world view in 14thcentury in Italy and led to a new age, the Renaissance. – Madalena Gaspar, nº16

Regarding the treatment of the disease;

people who suffer from black death are very ill so the only way to heal them is with antibiotics however they may require additional treatments, like respiratory support and medications to keep the blood pressure adequate. 

But in the 14th century, there weren't antibiotics and developed medical treatments so a lot of people died.

People also had to keep isolated so they could stop the spread of the plague but people in 14th century weren't informed so they had no resources to stop it. 

Rita Almeida nº24 10ºH

 

 

I chose to talk a little bit about the black plague because it was the most devasting pandemic in human history.

The plague has brought many problems such as population decline, religious, social and economic upheaval. It is estimated that the black plague has killed between 30% and 60%of the European population.

The black plague originated in the  Asia continent, precisely in China as the coronavirus.

The spread of the disease was initialy by means of rats and, mainly, fleas infected with bacillus that eventually transmitted to people.

Duarte Serra nº9  10ºH

Leprosy

 

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Speaking now of another major epidemic... This one happened during the 11th century, when Europe was plagued by Leprosy. In the Middle Ages this disease was seen as a punishment from God, as a curse to anyone who was beaten. Even today, Leprosy affects a large number of people around the world. Leprosy originated in Africa / Asia, but reached Europe through the armies of Alexander the Great's conquest, around 300 BC. It devastated Europe and the Middle East during the dark ages, until about 1870.

Beatriz Martins, nº3,  10º H

Spanish Flu Pandemic

The Spanish Flu was one of the most horrible and tragic pandemics that the human race ever saw, infected 500 milion people and killed almost 100 milion, was caused by H1N1 virus. This infection came from the birds, and the most surreal thing was that country´s like the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany never talked about it because they were having some really bad troubles with resources and death, that the First War had bring to the world, the only country that ever talked about it, was Spain the epicenter of the pandemic.

All this situation started in 1918 and "stopped" in 1920.

Carolina Baptista, Nº5/10ºH

AIDS

AIDS is part of a group of viruses that still has no cure in the current days, and remains in "circulation". 

Having arisen in 1981, scientists assumed that it was developed through a chimpanzee and was initially disseminated to the West African population, spread quickly to the rest of the world, given its easy transmission when there is no precaution. 

This virus has killed about 35 million people since its origin and today 64% of the 40 million infected people live in sub-saharan Africa. 

It is worth mentioning that today there are medicines that allow us to live a normal life to the infected people and given the scientific advances on the disease and perhaps human adaptation, two people have been cured since the beginning of 2020.

Daniel Ferreira, Nº7 10ºH

Athens plague

This pandemic affected Athens in the summer of 430 A.C and finish in the year 429A.C She appeared during the confrontation between Sparta and Athens. The first appearance was in the port of athens and quickly spread to the rest of the city, is not known for certain what the disease was but everything indicates that it may have been measles, that caused the death of 35% of the population

Vasco Gomes nº25

Asian Flu

The Asian Flu was a pandemic that started in China in the beginning of 1956 and lasted until 1958. Scientists say that the virus originated from a mutation in wild ducks with a human strain. The estimated number of deaths was 1.1 million worldwide and one hundred and sixteen thousand in the United States of America.

Maira Antunes Nº28

Flu pandemic: 1889-1890

Russian flu from 1889 to 1890 led to the death of one million to one and a half million people, of which two hundred to three hundred thousand were European. It is mainly characterized by fever and pneumonia.
The Russian flu mainly affected children and young people. Currently, it is believed that it was caused by the H2N2 virus, because people with greater resistance to the 1957 Asian flu, of the H2N2 subtype, would have obtained resistance in the first contact during the Russian flu epidemic.
It is the first fully documented pandemic, initially recorded in May in Bukhara, in the south of the former Russian Empire, now Uzbekistan, and spread rapidly through Russia in two weeks, mainly because of the Trans-Siberian railroad. In the same year, it had already reached all of Europe, arriving in North America in December, and in Brazil in February 1890, with the arrival of a ship in Salvador from Hamburg, Germany. Half the population of Salvador falls ill and soon reaches other parts of Brazil and the world in 1890.

Maria Constança Almeida  Nº18

Black Death

The Black death was the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, resulting im deaths of up to 75—200 million people in Eurasia and north Africa. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. the Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious: the mere touching of the clothes, people who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning. Plague, the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Pestis infection most commonly results in bubonic plague, but can cause septicaemic or pneumonic plagues. The plague never really ended but officials in the Venetian-controlled port city of Ragusa by creating social distancing that relied on isolation to slow the spread of the disease.

Henrique Lourenço 10H N29

Fiji Measles Pandemic

After the British empire conquered fiji islands (1874/1875), a royal party visited Australia as a gift from Queen Victoria. Arriving during a measles outbreak, the royal party brought the disease back to their island, and it was spread further by the tribal heads.

Spreading quickly, the island was littered with corpses thtat were scavenged by wild animals, and entire villages died and were burned down, sometimes with the sick trapped inside the fires, a total of 40000 people died.

Measles can cause high fever, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes and small raises bumps may also appear on the top of the flat red spots on the skin. 

Francisco Santos 10H N10

 

(several sources)

Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again (1943)

A song of hope! Vera Lynn was 103 years old on 20th March. Rest In Peace!

Coronavirus starves people of oxygen - National Geographic

Photo and article by National Geographic

Wednesday, April 22

INTERNATIONAL MOTHER EARTH DAY 2020

Secretary-General's Message

On this International Mother Earth Day, all eyes are on the COVID-19 pandemic – the biggest test the world has faced since the Second World War.

We must work together to save lives, ease suffering and lessen the shattering economic and social consequences.

The impact of the coronavirus is both immediate and dreadful.

But there is another, deep emergency -- the planet’s unfolding environmental crisis.

Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return.

We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption.

The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.

We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future.

I am therefore proposing six climate-related actions to shape the recovery and the work ahead.

First: as we spend huge amounts of money to recover from the coronavirus, we must deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition.

Second: where taxpayers’ money is used to rescue businesses, it needs to be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth.

Third: fiscal firepower must drive a shift from the grey to green economy, and make societies and people more resilient.

Fourth: public funds should be used to invest in the future, not the past, and flow to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and the climate.

Fossil fuel subsidies must end, and polluters must start paying for their pollution.

Fifth: climate risks and opportunities must be incorporated into the financial system as well as all aspects of public policy making and infrastructure.

Sixth: we need to work together as an international community.

These six principles constitute an important guide to recovering better together.

Greenhouse gases, just like viruses, do not respect national boundaries.

On this Earth Day, please join me in demanding a healthy and resilient future for people and planet alike.

António Guterres

(United Nations Secretary-General)

Google Images

Pandemics in history (click the links below to learn more)

Worst pandemics in history


Flu, Cholera, Black Death

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster | From Our Archives

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Challenger explosion - January 28, 1986

Challenger crew

Apollo 11: One Small Step on the Moon for All Mankind

BBC News

BBC News - Climate Crisis

Dystopias

an imaginary place or state in which everything is extremely bad or unpleasant

                                                

- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbuary

- 1984, by George Orwell

- What happened to Monday (Seven Sisters)

- The hunger games (film based on Suzanne Collin's novel of the same name)

- The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells

- Brave New World , by Aldous Huxley

- A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess  

- Blade Runner (film based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick.)

- The Divergent (film based on the novel of the same name by Veronica Roth.)

"A low grey building, of only 34 floors. Over the main entrance the words CENTRAL LONDON HATCHINHG AND CONDITIONING CENTRE,  and below that the motto of the World State, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY."