By Professor Binna Kandola
Co-founder and senior partner, Pearn Kandola
“COLUMBUS sailed for India, / Found Salvador instead, / He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead, / They got TB and typhoid and athlete’s foot, / Diphtheria and the flu, / Excuse me, great nations coming through.”
Randy Newman’s caustic lyrics to his song The Great Nations of Europe shows the devastation that can be caused by pathogens being introduced into a culture that has no resistance to them.
Evolutionary psychologists have long recognised that people in groups try to avoid diseases. When our ancestors came across tribes that they were not familiar with, they tended to treat them with suspicion. In some respects, we carry those tendencies within us even today, and they are particularly noticeable when a public health risk is posed, such as is occurring at the moment with the Corona virus….
Read the full article on Eastern Eye.
