A JOURNAL OF THE COVID YEAR

摘要

The title of this editorial has been borrowed from one of Daniel Defoe's novels named "A Journal of the Plague Year", which he had written after the bubonic plague that occurred in London in 1665. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) of Robinson Crusoe fame was five years old when the disease struck London and he wrote the history more than 50 years after that. The book presents detailed observations of the most remarkable occurrences of that plague period. It started in the same way as that of COVID 19 with various suspicions, doubts and rumors regarding the source of the plague. Some said it came from Holland where it had been very violent in the year 1663, some said it came from Italy, some others said it came from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it came from Candia, while some others opined that it came from Cyprus.However, one major difference was that there was "no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumors and reports of things" in contrast to what we have today with social media on digital platform contributing to fast spread of rumors and reports.