Pandemics And White House Demagogues: How Wilson And Trump Made Everything Worse

Pandemics And White House Demagogues: How Wilson And Trump Made Everything Worse

Truly.. This is history repeating itself.. I wonder who had the most deaths from the Spanish Flu.. I am betting the USA.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentar...es-how-wilson-and-trump-made-everything-worse




By Dan Kennedy
June 10, 2020
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The pandemic was spread not just by germs but by politics. The virus would have killed many Americans in any case. But a demagogue occupied the White House, and measures that could have reduced the number of victims — a ban on large gatherings, for instance, as well as an honest reckoning with the public — were discouraged at the highest levels. In the end, a tragedy that was the result of natural forces was made immeasurably worse by human failure.

You may think I’m describing President Donald Trump’s response to COVID-19. In fact, I’m referring to Woodrow Wilson and the influenza pandemic of 1918. According to John M. Barry’s 2005 book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,” a considerable amount of suffering and death could have been prevented were it not for Wilson’s messianic mobilization for war.