With great apprehension, the world is now watching the birth of a novel pandemic already causing tremendous suffering, death, and disruption of normal life. Uncertainty and dread are exacerbated by the belief that what we are experiencing is new and mysterious. However, deadly pandemics and disease emergences are not new phenomena: they have been challenging human existence throughout recorded history. Some have killed sizeable percentages of humanity, but humans have always searched for, and often found, ways of mitigating their deadly effects. We here review the ancient and modern histories of such diseases, discuss factors associated with their emergences, and attempt to identify lessons that will help us meet the current challenge.

中文翻译：

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大流行COVID-19加入了历史大流行军团。

由于担心，世界现在正在注视着一场新的流行病的诞生，这种流行病已经造成了巨大的痛苦，死亡和正常生活的中断。相信我们正在经历的是新奇而神秘的信念，加剧了不确定性和恐惧。但是，致命的流行病和疾病的出现并不是新现象：在整个记录的历史中，它们一直在挑战人类的生存。有些人杀死了相当大比例的人类，但人类一直在寻找并经常发现减轻其致命影响的方法。在这里，我们回顾了此类疾病的古代和现代历史，讨论了与此类疾病的发生有关的因素，并试图找出有助于我们应对当前挑战的经验教训。