After watching the video and reading about the Spanish Flu and Covid-19, I found it extremely interesting the similarities between these two pandemics. I expect COVID-19 to be more controlled due to the similarities and lessons learned from the Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu infected 500 million people and killed around 20-50 million people worldwide. The first wave of the Spanish Flu had mild symptoms but the second wave was much more deadly. This is frightening because this could easily happen with COVID-19. It is known that history seems to repeat itself I hope that the second wave of this virus won’t be as deadly as the Spanish Flu. In the article called “Spanish Flu,” it is written that “Citizens were ordered to wear masks, schools, theaters, and businesses were shuttered.” This proves the parallel between the Spanish Flu and COVID-19. The government during the Spanish Flu and COVID-19 seemed to deal with the pandemic in similar ways. Wilson and Trump both underplayed the virus which made the spread in the United States to be even more rapid and detrimental to society and the health of the people. Both presidents were more interested in economic interests.
The Spanish Flu and COVID-19 have an unbelievable amount of similarities. The technological advancements in the world today make it surprising to see how many similarities there are between the two pandemics. We would expect that the lessons learned about the Spanish Flu would give the world an idea of how to deal with and contain the virus. The medical advancements and research completed in the past 100 years make it surprising how the world does not know how to contain a pandemic. I hope within next year the world can make a vaccine and prevent the virus from killing even more millions of people.
The similarities between these two pandemics are certainly rattling to read about. Really shows that history repeats itself, in every form. Although, our failure as a nation to stop the rapid spread of COVID, despite us having already experienced a pandemic and knowing what works, shows our failure as a population to have learned from history and implemented what we learned.
I was also very surprised by the amount of similarities between the pandemics. I never realized how bad the Spanish Flu really was, but also how close COVID-19 is to it, even though its happening 100 years later. I would have expected us to handle things differently or have a better system and understanding of how to control it, but we really do not. It makes it clear that our society hasn’t advanced as much as it seems to have in so many year.
I also am scared about how little it seems Americans and at the world in general is taking history into account during Covid-19. Its ironic how people will preach you have to learn history or its condemned to repeat itself but no one seems to follow that advise. We should be concerned about the similarities between the Spanish Influenza and Covid-19 but it doesn’t seem people are making that connection or talking about it.