Half a year ago, at the beginning of the second week of January, Chinese authorities made the first public announcement that a new type of virus was rampant in the city of Wuhan.
When the existence of the virus was announced, the first infection of a human by a vertebrate animal had apparently occurred several weeks earlier.
Initially, Chinese authorities seem to have tried to suppress any evidence. To this day, it is not exactly clear when and where the virus jumped from animal to human. Transmission from a bat to an intermediate host, perhaps a tanuki, and then to humans is considered likely and seems to be the origin of the pandemic that is still in full swing today.
The largest chains of infection can be traced back to so-called superspreader events.
The use of mouth-and-nose protection, i.e., face masks, has now become established in almost all countries of the world. However, many medical professionals question whether most people are capable of using it in everyday life in such a way as to help prevent potential virus transmission.
Regardless, there have been more than 25 million cases of the disease so far, and nearly a million deaths globally.
And through all this, I find myself thinking that I wish Covid-19 had started in Las Vegas.
Because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.