The Old New World

In 1918, public health was a system largely designed to shield the middle and upper classes from the ravages of disease epidemics suffered by the lower classes – which the still-popular pseudoscience of eugenics told them were “inferior categories of human being.” Typhus, cholera and even bubonic plague were significant problems, and viruses were poorly understood. Influenza was not monitored; public health systems did not track or count it, so no one had any idea who had it or where it they lived. The pandemic hit them like the proverbial Mack truck.

Although the 1918 flu pandemic – which killed more than World War I – had little effect on economics or culture, it had a big effect on public health. No one wanted to go through that again. European countries began developing systems of universal healthcare, which grew into the national health systems we see in Europe today.* Public health achieved ministry status and began, for the first time, to complete with other aspects of government on an equal level. And, understanding that the disease doesn't recognize borders of any kind, and therefore international coordination seemed wise, they created the forerunner of the WHO right away, in 1919.

So we lived through a health emergency so awful and devastating that whole countries made monumental efforts to protect all their citizens, maintain vigilance through government agency, and coordinate efforts after a brutal and demoralizing World War. Imagine that.

The new world. Will it include universal healthcare? Even more importantly, will it include some kind of actual guarantee that we will all stand together, united, to defeat the next global threat?

Remember climate change? It's still out there. So are racism and income inequality.  We'll see.

* - It took the US more than a decade more to respond in this arena, and then it came up with today's employer-based healthcare – far from universal.