Abstract
In the past 100 years, the world has faced four distinctly different pandemics: the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, the SARS pandemic of 2003, the H1N1 or “swine flu” pandemic of 2012, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Each public health crisis exposed specific systemic shortfalls and provided public health lessons for future events. The Spanish flu revealed a nursing shortage and led to a great appreciation of nursing as a profession. SARS showed the importance of having frontline clinicians be able to work with regulators and those producing guidelines. H1N1 raised questions about the nature of a global organization such as the World Health Organization in terms of the benefits and potential disadvantages of leading the fight against a long-term global public health threat. In the era of COVID-19, it seems apparent that we are learning about both the blessing and curse of social media.
Highlights
In the past hundred years, the world has struggled through four major coronavirus pandemics: The Spanish flu of 1918, Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, H1N1 or “swine flu” in 2012, and the current novel coronavirus of 2019 associated with COVID-19
In this challenging time of COVID-19, it may be helpful to reflect on these earlier pandemics
Pandemic is defined by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents and affects a large number of people [1, 2]
Summary
In the past hundred years, the world has struggled through four major coronavirus pandemics: The Spanish flu of 1918, Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, H1N1 or “swine flu” in 2012, and the current novel coronavirus of 2019 associated with COVID-19. Coinciding with World War I, the Spanish flu was spread in part when large numbers of infected troops were deployed to distant lands or housed in close quarters on military posts [3]. Public health interventions such as closing schools, prohibiting large assemblies, quarantines, and what is called “social distancing” or better “physical distancing” were practiced, even as the relatively new science of vaccines sought a biomedical response [6]. One of the key lessons learned in the Spanish flu emerged in the dire shortage of trained nurses needed to help manage the large numbers of sick and convalescent patients [7]. Social media was scarcely a presence in 2003 when SARS occurred; Google was founded in 1999, Facebook did not appear until 2007, and the first iPhone did not come to market until the summer of 2007
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