Seoul, Sept. 11 (BUS): From smallpox, black plague and cholera to Spanish flu and COVID-19, an exhibition at a National Museum in central Seoul offers a graphic and detailed look at how the human race is fighting infectious diseases. .
The National Museum of Contemporary Korean History opened a special exhibition titled “Reconnecting: Until Everyone Is Safe” Thursday to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
The show offers a quick review of the history of infectious diseases that have kept pace with the progress of civilization and shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly exposed a vulnerability in human society through a total of 150 pictures, illustrations, videos and other materials on screen, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
Visitors will first watch a video reminding them that the history of infectious diseases began with the adoption of agricultural and sedentary lifestyles by mankind, and diseases transmitted through trade between neighboring communities and wars of conquest.
The first chapter of the exhibition, titled “Prosperity and Diseases from Exchanges”, shows that regional endemic diseases have spread through the international trade network to other continents with the rapid expansion of trade and exchanges between different countries.
Presented in the section are paintings and illustrations depicting the deadly outbreak of black plague and cholera around the world as well as official documents showing the efforts of the Korean authorities to contain the spread of cholera in the late Joseon era (1392-1910) and . Japanese Colonial Era (1910-1945).
While looking at photos taken during the Spanish Flu that killed tens of millions of people around the world from 1918-19, visitors may be surprised by the similarity between the situation and what they went through with COVID-19.
Historic black and white photos show children going to school wearing masks, baseball players playing a game wearing masks, men waiting in an outdoor barber shop for a haircut, and a passenger being prevented from riding a tram for not wearing a mask. There are also pictures of military tents set up for a quarantine camp, a worker sterilizing a train, and patients receiving treatment in different hospitals.
Enlarged versions of various newspaper articles on the disease and related commercials are also displayed. You might smile at a phonograph ad that reads, “You can attend major operas, light operas, sacred music, or beautiful old songs without the risk of getting the flu.”
Part Two shows how the development of medical treatment led by the introduction of vaccines and antibiotics greatly improved people’s ability to respond to infectious diseases in the twentieth century. The exhibition also reminds visitors of the fact that new infectious diseases, such as HIV, avian influenza, SARS, MERS-CoV, novel influenza, novel coronavirus, and monkey virus, have continued to emerge outside the anti-epidemic barriers erected by mankind.
Part Three, “Reconnection,” reviews the vulnerabilities of human society exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the uneven distribution of vaccines based on the economic power of recipients, unfounded bias, and discrimination against infected people.
The exhibition then encourages visitors to reflect on the need for cooperation and solidarity to overcome the current situation of COVID-19, and shows a slogan from the World Health Organization (WHO): No one is safe until everyone is safe.
“When we planned this exhibition last year, we thought that the epidemic could have been contained to some extent by the time the event opened, and that it would be an exhibition looking beyond flashbacks,” Nam Hyseok, director of the museum, said during the conference. Media preview of the exhibition Wednesday.
“However, the pandemic is still ongoing, and it now appears that we are living in an age where we have to adapt to this environment. We may not be able to overcome it completely based only on the scientific response. Only when people around the world are reconnecting the threads of cooperation and solidarity Can they overcome the pandemic crisis facing humanity together?
HF