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Adding Fuel to the Fire of Our Pandemics
Nero, the Roman Emperor who legendarily fiddled while Rome burned is a symbol for an irresponsible, ineffective, and callous leader who shows indifference to people in crisis. The great Rome fire took place in the first century AD. The fiddle wasn’t invented until the eleventh century, so it is unlikely that the hedonistic emperor played the fiddle while his city was burning. More likely, he was engaged in some trivial or sybaritic act, regardless of the crisis.
