History forgotten is history to
be repeated, for evolution occurs over such vast oceans of time that for our
purposes, human biological nature is fixed. Yet history kept fresh can permit
progress such that the species is better equipped to combat problems such as
pandemics. At the time of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, serious comparisons
to the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the Black Death of the fourteenth century were
lacking in the American media, including by public health officials and
government officials even as claims of vague equivalence were made. Such
claims, I submit, were erroneous. In fact, they did more harm than good by
instilling excessive fear in the population.
The full essay is at "Equivalence and Progress in Infectious Diseases."