Genuine question; how many pandemics have there been in our lifetime?
the maoster:
Genuine question; how many pandemics have there been in our lifetime?
Depends on how old you are! 
(sorry)
And how you define pandemics or epidemics, but how about,
COVID 19 current.
HIV/AIDS 1980s current Hong Kong Flu 1968/69
Flu 1957/58 And for a few centenarians Spanish Flu 1918/20.
Pandemics are like earthquakes.
We know there is always another one on the way. We don`t know where or when, nor whether it will be more or less severe than the last one, but we know (no need to be a soothsayer) that they recur.
Only a few years ago in 2016, there was Exercise Cygnus, a rehearsal for a flu epidemic in the UK. The results of that are still not in the public domain.
We need to see what happened so we can do better the next time.
robroy:
As for your prediction to the next pandemic
Even back in my days as a student in the early 1990’s, discussion of pandemics was a bog-standard part of any epidemiology-related courses. They are natural occurences, have been for centuries, and the more-densely packed our populations become, the more likely it is that a pathogen will spread faster and further. We were always taught it was “when the next pandemic occurs” not “if”.
Zac_A:
robroy:
As for your prediction to the next pandemicEven back in my days as a student in the early 1990’s, discussion of pandemics was a bog-standard part of any epidemiology-related courses. They are natural occurences, have been for centuries, and the more-densely packed our populations become, the more likely it is that a pathogen will spread faster and further. We were always taught it was “when the next pandemic occurs” not “if”.
Ok, but I won’t be losing any sleep over it. 
robroy:
Ok, but I won’t be losing any sleep over it.
No need to: Either someone on TN will either have the cure for the next one that comes along (I never realised until Covid landed that there were so many expert virologists and immunologists who had instead chosen a life of HGV driving), or our resident expert on all scientific matters (you know who I’m talking about) will rewrite the rules of biology so the pathogen will simply cease to exist in his new reality.