California is not in the clear yet, but its experience so far suggests early action is crucial. https://www.vox.com/2020/4/7/21205890/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-new-york-california
This insightful essay points to pertinent parallels between the AIDS pandemic and the Covid-19 pandemic now.
This website collects first person narratives from the Covid-19 pandemic at the Weill Cornell Medical College. It is curated by Megan Wolff, who was a student in an earlier incarnation of HIST 384, and went on to earn her PhD in the history of public health. http://psych-history.weill.cornell.edu/his_res/covid-19.html
“Historically, disease outbreaks have happened at a time of social inequality and discord.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/12/inequality-pandemic-lockdown
Here are 80 pages of emails in which public health experts discuss the beginning of the pandemic and the failure of the Trump administration to respond to it.
“Experts inside and outside the government identified the threat early on and sought to raise alarms even as President Trump was moving slowly. Read some of what they had to say among themselves at critical moments.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/at-va-facility-where-virus-kills-40-doctor-blames-societys-willing-to-warehouse-elders/2020/04/10/afd329d4-7b85-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html
A great example of how powerful individuals deny science when its conclusions threaten the income streams of those whose paychecks depend on the denial of reality. Think climate change, as well.
The authors estimate the probability that an outbreak is ongoing in counties where there are no cases or only low numbers of cases, showing that most of the US that is relative unaffected now (early April, 2020) will be experiencing a severe covid-19 epidemic in the near future.
