The novel coronavirus took just a few months to sweep the globe. More than 2.5 million people around the world have died, including 500,000 in the United States. How many more will die, how countries will recover — the answers remain elusive as the disease continues raging. But history shows that past pandemics have reshaped societies in profound ways. Hundreds of millions of people have died. Empires have fallen. Governments have cracked. Generations have been annihilated. Here is a look at how pandemics have remade the world.
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