Unprecedented

This word is thrown around
like popcorn in a movie theater.

Unprecedented.
\ ˌən-ˈpre-sə-ˌden-təd \
: having no precedent; novel; unexampled.

The specific novel coronavirus,
in its particular strain,
is unprecedented.

But these are not unprecedented times,
or unprecedented challenges.

1918-1919: Spanish influenza pandemic.
1347-1353, and intermittently until the 1660s: the Black Death.

This novel coronavirus
is simply a new face, a new chapter
in an old story.

It is not
unprecedented.