The coronavirus pandemic is the United Kingdom’s gravest crisis since the Second World War and we are now facing possibly the most severe economic downturn for 300 years. As we grapple with the consequences, there are lessons to be learned from history. In a recent New Statesman webinar, Laura Spinney, author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World (2017); Dr Phil Whitaker, our medical columnist; and Professor Michael Barrett, an infection biologist at Glasgow University, joined Jason Cowley to discuss the government’s response and much else.
Jason Cowley Laura, in an earlier conversation you used a resonant phrase to describe our response to coronavirus. You said we have a “peculiar memory for pandemics”. What do you mean by that?
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