COVID-19 pandemic (Metathesiophobia)

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the Coronavirus pandemic or the COVID-19 outbreak was a catastrophic global pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but it wasn't declared a pandemic until March 2020. By the time Tozinameran was released globally, more then 110 million cases had been confirmed, with an estimated 2.1 million deaths to accompany it.

The symptoms of COVID-19 varied during its global reign, ranging from none to severe illness or devastating effects. The virus spread primarily through the air, and spread through travel by air or water to other continents. Breathing, coughing, sneezing, and speaking were only some methods of the illness spreading, with the disease entering a human's body through their eyes, nose, or mouth. Around November 2020, a mask mandate was initiated in the United States, which aimed to slow down the spreading of the disease in time for the vaccine to be released to the public.

Preventive measures initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic included social distancing, wearing a face mask in public, ventilation and air-filtering, handwashing, disinfection of surfaces, and heavy monitoring and self-isolation to those who showed symptoms of the disease. In December 2020, over 170 countries confirmed that they were chipping in to speed up the development of vaccines for COVID-19, which included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Japan, and India. During the early-stages of the pandemic, officials of government bodies across the world initiated travel restrictions, lockdowns, and closures of facilities including workplaces.

The pandemic devastated the global economy, including the deepest recession seen since the Great Depression in 1929. It resulted in the surge of unemployment rates globally and food shortages. By the time the pandemic ended, only six countries remained uninfected, those being Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, North Korea, Kiribati, and the Cook Islands. Events worldwide were postponed or cancelled, and misinformation spread like a plague throughout the Internet and untrustworthy media outlets. Several countries have experienced xenophobia, most notably China, who many accuse to have created the virus with malicious intent.