With the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror, at least for now, we look back on a handful of stories that provided sharp insights at key moments in the pandemic.
In this November 1918 photo, a nurse tends to a patient in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed hospital in Bethesda, Md.
AP Photo/Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress
During the 1918 flu pandemic, white people died at similar rates to Black Americans, according to a new study – a very different pattern than what occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A painting by Nicolas Poussin titled ‘The Athenian Plague’ shows people dying of the plague.
Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images
A scholar of ancient Greek literature goes back to the account of Greek historian Thucydides on the spread of plague and finds parallels in the American response to the health crisis today.
Wishing won’t be enough to make the pandemic history.
David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Accounts of previous epidemics – by Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe and Katherine Porter – warn of mistakes that we risk repeating.
In the wake of COVID-19, the 2020s may be a time when we reconsider how we work, run governments and have fun, just as the 1920s were. This illustration of a flapper girl, created by artist Russell Patterson in the 1920s, captures the style of that era.
(Library of Congress)
A century ago, the end of the 1918 flu pandemic was followed by a period of prosperity, cultural flourishing and social change known as the Roaring ‘20s. Will the end of COVID-19 launch a similar era?
Armistice Day celebrations on Nov. 11, 1918, worried public health experts as people crowded together in cities across the U.S.
AP Photo
Americans were tired of social distancing and mask-wearing. At the first hint the virus was receding, people pushed to get life back to normal. Unfortunately another surge of the disease followed.
Apia harbour on the island of Upolu, Samoa, where the deadly influenza virus came ashore in 1918.
www.shutterstock.com
This isn’t the first time America’s schoolchildren have studied remotely – and Chicago’s 1937 ‘radio school’ experiment shows how technology can fill the gap during a crisis.
The arts, literature and culture provide models for hope and resilience in times of crisis.
(Marc-Olivier Jodoin/Unsplash)
The radical hope we find in the arts, culture and literature is often a reflection of the times. Drawing from the past there are many examples of how dreams can become a form of resilience.
A scene from Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’ – sales of which have reportedly risen during the pandemic.
John Waterhouse/Lady Lever Art Gallery
Narratives throughout history illustrate how pandemics make people grapple with their faith, leading them to deepen religious beliefs or reject them altogether.
Policemen in Seattle, Washington, wearing masks made by the Red Cross, during the influenza pandemic, December 1918.
National Archives
It’s always dangerous to put present-day events into historic perspectives. That’s especially true when political leaders have compared the coronavirus pandemic to a war effort.
Daily deaths from COVID-19 have rarely been below 600 in the U.S. since March.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
There’s no scientific definition for a wave of disease – and no evidence that the original onslaught of coronavirus in the US has receded much at all.
A list of rules from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1918 to reduce the chances of contracting or spreading the devastating flu pandemic.
Getty Images / Fototeca Storica Nazionale
How politicians and the public in Denver, Colorado handled the 1918 flu epidemic is relevant to today.
The U.S. as a whole is facing a huge surge in coronavirus cases, but the differences between states like New York and Florida are striking.
Kena Betancur/1207979953 via Getty Images
The recent spike in new coronavirus cases in the US is not due to a second wave, but simply the virus moving into new populations or surging in places that opened up too soon.
A Cholera Patient, Random Shots No. 2. Cartoon by British satirist Robert Cruikshank, circa 1832.
(Wellcome Library)
Pandemic histories are useful for understanding COVID-19, but how they connect with race, public health, revolution, labour and colonialism are needed to explain the present and predict the future.
Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic at Camp Funston in Kansas around 1918.
National Museum of Health and Medicine
A century ago, the influenza pandemic killed about 50 million people. Today we are battling the coronavirus pandemic. Are we any better off? Two social scientists share five reasons we have to be optimistic.
US soldiers with influenza at Aix-Les-Bains in France in 1918.
U.S. Army photographer via Wikimedia Commons
PODCAST: The third part of a series from The Anthill Podcast on how the world recovered from major crises throughout history focuses on the recovery after 1918.