Global Pandemics that Shook the World: What Sets Apart the COVID-19 Experience?

Mankind has experienced, devastated and successfully recovered from various pandemics over the past two thousand years and may be even before that. The socio economic effects or the death rate for that matter have varied from one pandemic to other but all of them sure were quite catastrophic and has left a mark in the canons of history. Now standing in 21st century, human civilization is again facing a threat to its survival in the form of a new pandemic called Coronavirus disease or Covid-19. Originated in China, this virus has now spread across many nations throughout the world and affected the lives of billions of people. The present paper is an attempt to look back at some of the most notable pandemics and its effects that humanity has faced in the past and compare them with the present situation of the world which is currently tottering under the influence of the deadly Coronavirus.