What does Our Experience of COVID-19 Teach Us? 6 4
Abstract
Viral diseases pose the greatest concern for human health. Some of the major epidemics have turned into pandemics, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), HIV, influenza A (H1N1) pdm/09, and most recently, COVID-19. It soon became a major burden for all affected countries, which disturbed social and economic development. As of March 5, 2021, there have been over 116 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 2.5 million deaths reported worldwide (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, accessed on 05.03.2021). COVID-19 could cost the global economy about USD 4.1 trillion (https://cepi.net/about/whyweexist/; accessed on 05.03.2021).