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A review by christine3s2read
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
4.0
“So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate all within a society. Society cannot function if it is every man for himself. By definition, civilization cannot survive that. Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart.”
This book is filled with information from so many different perspectives from the 1918 pandemic and practices leading up to it and after it. It was long, so sometimes I honestly felt bored. I was determined to finish it so I kept reading and learning along the way. Reading the afterword, 13 months into the COVID-19 pandemic is just plain eerie. Things Barry suggested might happen in the next pandemic have happed, except that this is a coronavirus like SARS, not an influenza virus.
This book is filled with information from so many different perspectives from the 1918 pandemic and practices leading up to it and after it. It was long, so sometimes I honestly felt bored. I was determined to finish it so I kept reading and learning along the way. Reading the afterword, 13 months into the COVID-19 pandemic is just plain eerie. Things Barry suggested might happen in the next pandemic have happed, except that this is a coronavirus like SARS, not an influenza virus.