In grade school, I was always told that the reason we took history class was so that we could learn the patterns, and acknowledge our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. I know for a fact that we studied Spanish influenza, but apparently, the federal government did not study it, as we are making all the same mistakes that the federal government did in 1918.
Spanish influenza spread very similarly to COVID19, and the way the United States handled them is disturbingly similar. In both cases the president, Woodrow Wilson, and Donald Trump did not validate the severity of the disease when it started, even after seeing the tolls, it took on other countries. The medical professionals advised wearing masks, but in 1918 and 2020, people still refuse to wear their masks, which prolongs the pandemics and allows more casualties. In the video, Trevor Noah says that wearing masks is what eventually got the pandemic to end yet knowing that people still wouldn’t wear masks. Will we will able to learn from our mistakes, or continue this pattern? If we can let mistakes with pandemics be repeated, what’s to stop the same thing from happening with wars or other dangerous things?
Another scary thing I learned is the effects that misinformation during a pandemic can have. Beyond believing the misinformation that the presidents spoke, that snake oil and injecting yourself with disinfectants will kill the disease, nationalities were targeted. After the great war, when Spanish influenza broke out, people blamed the Germans. When COVID breaking out, people are looking towards the Chinese, as China is where the outbreak started. Although something may have originated in a place, it is dangerous to blame a country or a people, because this is how implicit prejudice gets ingrained into society. In today’s society is it possible to acknowledge the history, and where the disease originated, without creating divisions in society?
I also feel very concerned that no one has really learned from mistakes in the past and we are still making those same mistakes. The similarities are scary and it really does make me wonder how the government is unable to recognize the effects of their actions. I also think that the dangers of misinformation played a large role in the scale of the pandemic. People are so desperate for answers and any sort of information when they are in fear in order to feel peace of mind. However, there are many dangers in believing anything that is said through the media such as the use of aspirin during the Spanish flu or injecting disinfectant to kill the virus. This is especially dangerous when it comes from the President or people in higher power.
Placing blame on a nation or a certain ethnicity is extremely dangerous during a pandemic because, as seen through Covid 19, it creates pointless racism and hatred. This is especially true once the disease has already spread worldwide as it is much more difficult to prevent it from entering a particular country through travel at that stage. President Trump continuing to place blame on China to protect his own image and shield his mistakes as a leader hurts the American public and has absolutely zero benefit in terms of preventing the spread of the disease. His words have created turmoil and violence against Asian Americans, many of whom aren’t even Chinese. An effective president would spend more time focusing on what could be done, both by their administration and the American public, to limit the number of deaths from Covid 19 instead of pointing figures and causing controversy in an already unstable time.