https://archive.md/510w8
"The Spanish flu pandemic is famous for killing more than 50 million people.
The other thing it’s famous for is how quickly people stopped talking about it
once the worst was past.
I’m seeing a similar thing happening today following the first few years of the
COVID-19 pandemic, and I’m concerned that now, just like back in 1918, we’re
missing valuable opportunities to learn lessons and apply them in today’s
business world.
Until the mid-1980s, the Spanish flu pandemic was a strange blank spot in the
historical record. No memorials to the doctors and nurses who died; few news
articles; a scattering of personal narratives; and almost no attention from
historians. That 70-year silence led later historians to declare it the
“forgotten pandemic,” even though it was similar to the Black Death in terms of
death toll.
Authorities didn’t communicate well about the spreading pandemic in the moment,
either. Instead, they ignored the problem or provided pat reassurances to the
public that quickly proved to be inaccurate.
“The communication strategy of either reassurance or silence had its effect,”
writes scholar John M. Barry. “Its effect was terror.”
People felt they couldn’t trust the authorities, leaving them to take matters
into their own hands, which often meant simply panicking. As a result of
people’s terror, Mr. Barry argues, key social structures collapsed in many
places, from shipping to health care services, as well as general social
support and mutual care.
It’s not a perfect parallel, but there are some eerie similarities with the
pandemic that rose some 100 years later."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: July 17, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-july-17-134311547
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
