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Public Health Threats and Pandemics

The Coronavirus Outbreak Is the Shape of Things to Come

Far from an anomaly, the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is the shape of things to come as development and globalization are driving a new era of infectious disease.

<p>Tourists wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival, which has been cancelled because of an outbreak of coronavirus, in Venice, Italy on February 23, 2020. </p>
Tourists wear protective face masks at Venice Carnival, which has been cancelled because of an outbreak of coronavirus, in Venice, Italy on February 23, 2020. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

By experts and staff

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  • Stewart M. Patrick
    James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I examine how development and globalization are driving a new era of infectious disease.

The Wuhan coronavirus, now officially named COVID-19, reveals how vulnerable humanity remains to virulent pathogens. A century after the devastating Spanish flu pandemic, public health officials are scrambling to prevent this latest plague—which as of Feb. 24 had infected more than 79,000 people in at least 29 countries, most of them in China—from becoming another pandemic. As they do, it’s worth taking a step back to consider the stubborn staying power of infectious disease. Far from an anomaly, this outbreak is the shape of things to come.

Read the full World Politics Review article here.