To the editor:

The pandemic reminds us that our modern world is an interconnected one. In a roundabout way there is something good about it. It reveals our common humanity with the people of all other nations. Whether we like it or not, in many ways we live in what might be called a United World, one great global society.

This view is not intended to gloss over existing problems. The pandemic reveals one of them. In our United World with a high frequency of travel and commerce, an epidemic that in the distant past might have been localized and contained within the borders of one nation now can spread quickly throughout the world. Overpopulation seems to be one cause of pandemics. Is it a complete accident that the COVID-19 virus has been traced to China, the most populous nation in the world? And is it accident that the virus is striking hardest in American cities with the highest populations such as New York?

COVID-19 is the enemy of all of humanity. It is a terrible scourge and yet it brings us together as a single species. It should also make people in every nation realize that high population density is usually undesirable. If human societies do not learn to plan and control their populations in humane ways, then Mother Nature will control population growth for us — and she is not always choosy or kind in her methods.

Charles Gilmore,

Lawrence