Pandemic Dominoes

“Pandemic Dominoes” is based on the NYT article by Thomas Friedman, “How We Broke The World”, which examines how pandemics develop and spread. Financial, religious, and economic turmoil contribute to the rise of certain criteria that cause zoonotic diseases. I extrapolated that CoVid-19 was the result of a decades long domino effect. The start of the domino infinity loop is the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 that resulted in the invasion of Iraq and the resurgence of Islamic terrorist groups. Economic instability follows, with falling oil prices, the subprime mortgage crises and major bank bailouts of 2008 (middle of the board). China rises to a global economic power, and as the country prospers, unchecked environmental destruction causes the loss of buffer habitats for many species that are then forced into populated areas (right top). SARS becomes a major global outbreak, however it is kept in check by governmental cooperation and contact tracing (middle to bottom right). Continued environmental obliteration, as in the burning of rainforests in Malaysia for palm oil plantations (bottom right), destroys natural habitats for profit. Increased profits mean increased trade and travel, and the transfer of diseases between countries quickens and widens (middle board). The African pangolin, sold on the Chinese black market, is suspected as the intermediate host of CoVid-19(middle left). The disease outbreak in Wuhan spreads unchecked through global air travel. Preventive measures may or may not be taken. Death tolls and infection rates grow exponentially. Vaccines are developed but roll-outs are bungled. (top left). This is where this cautionary tale breaks the infinity loop. If we do not stop the destruction of natural habitats, bats, civets, and other disease bearing species will be forced to adapt to city living, spreading viruses that can recombine with human RNA. We have developed globalized networks for increased productivity, but these networks have also resulted in cultural fracturing, environmental destruction, and with that, the zoonotic diseases that spread at alarming speed with catastrophic results. The last two dominoes veer off the board, perhaps into obscurity. The penultimate domino is a portrait of the Corona Virus cell on top, and Earth from space on the bottom. The last domino is left blank to allow the viewer to evaluate the implications of this disease and our response. I’ve used excerpts from scientific journals, and Friedman’s article, to guide the viewer along the domino trail that traces the origins of this global pandemic. And if we are not vigilant in taking precautions as individuals , in governments, in technological advances, and in scientific research and environmental causes, then we will be doomed to repeat this pandemic process over and over again.