Saturday, May 9, 2020

The second wave, the first time

From What Seattle Did Right, and Where New York Went Wrong, 1 May 2020 at Slate:
There is definitely going to be a second wave—we just know that that’s the nature of a pandemic. There is a mathematical certainty that as people start leaving their homes, as they start interacting with each other more, they will see a reemergence and a growth, again, of the coronavirus. And so what we should do is look to history: During the 1918 flu outbreak, in San Francisco, more people died in the second wave of infections than in the first. The reason why is, when the flu started spreading, officials said go into your homes and wear masks, and people listened. Things got better and started gradually reopening. Then a second wave began and the public health officials said, once more, go into your homes, wear masks. And people said they didn’t want to wear masks anymore. In fact, there were anti-mask riots in San Francisco.