Like everyone else I've been trying to make sense of what is
happening and has been happening these last few months. Far too much
time spent reading headlines from all over the world, hours spent
fretting about what I can and can not do to help. I'll write about the
last item some other time, but today I want to encourage everyone to
read a truly informative book, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.Despite some criticism saying that Covid-19 isn't the Spanish Flu, the book is amazingly relevant today. Few of us had any idea of what was going on when the great corona virus wave hit us, but, had we paid attention to the past, we might have had a better idea.
Physical distancing, hand washing, face masks: they all are standard advice now, but their usefulness--no, necessity--were first recognized during that great pandemic.
Barry tells a great story, as well as doing some impressive research in records, memoirs, and scientific publications. Get it and read it, and stop talking about how we'll be out the woods in a few weeks. We won't be and we are going to have to learn to live with this new virus until a vaccine is perfected.
