What we can learn about year 3 of COVID from the 1918 influenza pandemic

The influenza pandemic of 1918 did not end in 1918 or even 1919 — but it did fade from the headlines even as the death toll mounted in 1920, the third year of the pandemic, The Washington Post recounts.

There are a lot of parallels between 1920 and now, at the beginning of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Post reports: Hopes for an end to the pandemic dashed by waves of infection and death from a new variant, Americans "weary of the limitations on daily life," and a reactionary lifting of "nearly all of the public health restrictions — such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and the closure of schools and churches."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.