Copy this CollectionBesides the fever, dry cough, and tight chest, the coronavirus is responsible for another widespread affliction: anxiety.
As the nightly news unveils the virus' seemingly endless physical, social, and economic carnage, viewers are left wondering what still feels too distant to ask out loud: what about the next outbreak? When will researchers find a vaccine? How will the economy recover? What does 're-opening' really look like? And will this ever end?
But for every uncertainty COVID-19 raises, there is a universal truth to remember: this isn't the world's first epidemic, nor will it be the last. In recent years, Ebola, SARS, dengue fever, and even the 2008 economic crisis all felt hopeless and endless while they were happening, and yet all have effectively come and gone. Why? How? By investigating the epidemics, emergencies, and crises of yesteryear, this collection unveils lessons from the past to tackle the problems of the present.
Lesson 1: Train the community. In The New York Times Magazine, Jessica Benko explores how community health workers were critical to containing Ebola in Guinea through promoting proper handwashing, detecting cases, and connecting infected patients to care.
Lesson 2: Leverage technology. Covering dengue fever in Honduras for Thomson Reuters, Anastasia Moloney shows how mobile phone apps helped public health organizations track outbreaks in real time, and connect urgent care to the communities most affected. Syriacus Buguzi reports on a similar approach for The Citizen, explaining how smartphones help to contain cholera and Ebola outbreaks in Tanzania. And in NBC News, Cindy Sui reports on the lessons Taiwan learned firsthand during the 2003 SARS outbreak, like using technology to track and impose fines on those who refuse to quarantine.
Lesson 3: Prepare for the worst. Reporting on what successfully supported workers during the 2008 recession, Greg Rosalsky's NPR story shines light on "Kurzarbeit" in Germany -- a government program that pays companies to continue paying their workers, and reduces reliance on unemployment. And in a New York Times story about "stopping pandemics before they start," Tina Rosenberg explores how researchers are cutting the economic and political bureaucracy to develop a fast approval path for vaccines.
