Key Insights From:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
By John M. Barry
Key Insights From:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
By John M. Barry
What You'll Learn:
Until recently, the idea of a pandemic took most people’s imagination to Hollywood thrillers and the Black Plague that ravaged medieval Europe. But the most devastating plague to ever strike the human race took place a century ago, during the First World War. This story contains many lessons for how—and how not—to handle a pandemic. Barry’s tie-ins to our own day (most recent edition published in 2018) have an eerily prophetic ring to them in light of the corona virus that has recently swept the globe.
Key Insights:
- The 1918 influenza virus targeted young adults, and killed far more than the Black Plague or AIDS.
- Only a few scientists saw the world’s vulnerability to epidemics and began planning accordingly.
- The 1918 influenza began in Kansas, but it was quickly exported to the rest of the world, infecting hundreds of millions.
- The biggest lesson from last century’s influenza pandemic is that the government must tell—not simply manage—the truth.
- Global health surveillance and research into a universal influenza vaccine are among our best options for pandemic prevention.
- A quarantine is only effective if it is total and strict, a feat that is almost impossible for a government to pull off.
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