1,   Introduction

Baby Olpha Otis died at 4 months old..

Genie died at 8 years old in 1908…

These are the siblings of Clella B. Gregory from Kentucky, who describes the experience of her family during the influenza outbreak of the early 1900s. 

Tragically, this included the deaths of two of her siblings. There are innumerable similar stories to this…

Diseases have been among the biggest destroyers of lives throughout history. This applies not only to those who pass away, but to families, friends, communities, and other loved ones. Therefore, it won't be surprising that there are many individuals asking very diverse questions around some of the most devastating diseases in history. These may include; what is the definition of a pandemic? What is the difference between this and an epidemic? What were the deadliest pandemics in history?

Further, with all the emotional, social and economic instability that they cause; creates a perfect ground for vaccine hesitancy to grow and be maintained. With that, I`m going to discuss some of the most deadly infectious diseases in history. I`ll talk about how they disrupted almost every aspect of life. Although vaccines had not been invented for all of them, my key aim for this article is to illustrate the disruption that they cause. 

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