Health
History Isn’t Entirely Repeating Itself in Covid’s Aftermath
Five years after Covid-19 shut down activities all over the world, medical historians sometimes struggle to place the pandemic in context.
What, they are asking, should this ongoing viral threat be compared with?
Is Covid like the 1918 flu, terrifying when it was raging but soon relegated to the status of a long-ago nightmare?
Is it like polio, vanquished but leaving in its wake an injured but mostly unseen group of people who suffer long-term health consequences?
Or is it unique in the way it has spawned a widespread rejection of public health advice and science itself, attitudes that some fear may come to haunt the nation when the next major illness arises?
Some historians say it is all of the above, which makes Covid stand out in the annals of pandemics.
In many ways, historians say, the Covid pandemic — which the World Health Organization declared on March 11, 2020 — reminds them of the 1918 flu. Both were terrifying, killing substantial percentages of the population, unlike, say, polio or Ebola or H.I.V., terrible as those illnesses were.
The 1918 flu killed 675,000 people out of a U.S. population of 103 million, or 65 out of every 10,000. Covid has so far killed about 1,135,000 Americans out of a population of 331.5 million, or 34 out of every 10,000.
Both pandemics dominated the news every day while they raged. And both were relegated to the back of most people’s minds as the numbers of infections and deaths fell.
J. Alexander Navarro, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, said that in the fall of 1918, when the nation was in the throes of the deadliest wave of the 1918 flu, “newspapers were chock-full of stories about influenza, detailing daily case tallies, death tolls, edicts and recommendations issued by officials.”
During the next year, the virus receded. And so did the nation’s attention.
There were no memorials for flu victims, no annual days of remembrance.
“The nation simply moved on,” Dr. Navarro said.
Much the same thing happened with Covid, historians say, although it took longer for the virus’s harshest effects to recede.
Most people live as though the threat is gone, with deaths a tiny fraction of what they once were.
In the week of Feb. 15, 273 Americans died of Covid. In the last week of 2021, 10,476 Americans died from Covid.
Interest in the Covid vaccine has plummeted, too. Now just “a measly 23 percent of adults” have gotten the updated vaccine, Dr. Navarro noted.
Remnants of Covid remain — lasting financial effects, lags in educational achievement, casual dress, Zoom meetings, a desire to work from home. But few think of Covid as they go about their daily lives.
Dora Vargha, a medical historian at the University of Exeter, noted that there had been no ongoing widespread effort to memorialize Covid deaths. Instead, with Covid, “people disappeared into hospitals and never came out.”
Now it is only their friends and families who remember.
Dr. Vargha called that response understandable. People, she said, do not want to be “dragged back” into memories of those Covid years.
But some, like those suffering from long Covid, can’t forget. In that sense, she sees parallels with other pandemics that, unlike the 1918 flu, left a swath of people who were permanently affected.
People who contracted paralytic polio in the 1950s described themselves to Dr. Vargha as “the dinosaurs,” reminders of the time before the vaccine, when the virus was killing or paralyzing children.
Every pandemic has its dinosaurs, she said. They are the Zika babies living with microcephaly. They are the people, often at the margins of society, who develop AIDS.They are the people who contract tuberculosis.
But despite the pleas from those who cannot forget Covid and who seek more research, more empathy, more attention, the more pervasive attitude is, “We don’t need to care anymore,” said Mary Fissell, a historian at Johns Hopkins University.
That sounds so callous, and yet, said Dr. Barron Lerner, a historian at NYU Langone Health, in the world of public health “there are always people who are left behind — damaged or still at risk.”
“It’s hurtful” for people to be shunted aside, Dr. Lerner said. “Their lives are altered. The attention you feel their situation warrants is downplayed.”
But, he added, “on a realistic basis, there are any number of things to study.” Resources are limited, he noted, adding, “it can make sense to move on.”
One aspect of the Covid pandemic, though, is still with the nation, and seems to be part of a new reality: It has markedly changed attitudes toward public health.
Kyle Harper, a historian at the University of Oklahoma, said he would give the biomedical response to Covid an A-plus. “The rollout of vaccines was incredible,” he said.
But, he said, “I would give the social response a C-minus.”
Dr. Lerner had the same thought.
Few medical experts, he said, expected so much resistance to measures like masks, quarantines, social distancing and — when they became available — vaccines and vaccine mandates.
With Covid, he said, “compared to other pandemics, the amount of pushback to standard public health practices was remarkable.”
“That sets Covid apart,” he said. Public health measures that had worked in the past were rejected.
Some of the pushback was reasonable, he said, like objections to wearing masks outdoors. But the spurning of public health measures was widespread and politicized.
Dr. Navarro agreed and said the contrast with 1918 was striking.
“In 1918, there was an abiding respect for science and medicine that seems lacking today,” he said. There were pockets of resistance to measures like masking and avoiding large groups. But for the most part, he said, people complied with public health advice. And compliance was divorced from politics.
World War I also played a role in the messaging, Dr. Navarro said, which may have bolstered adherence.
“Public health orders and recommendations often purposely used the same language that was used to drum up support for the war effort,” Dr. Navarro said. The authorities, for example, asked people “to cover their coughs and sneezes so as not to gas their fellow citizens as the doughboys were being gassed by the Germans.”
Dr. Lerner contrasted the Covid response to the response to the polio vaccine.
The polio vaccine underwent preliminary testing, and then widespread testing, in the 1950s, with broad public acceptance.
With Covid, “faith in the scientific process got lost,” Dr. Lerner said.
That does not bode well for the next pandemic, Dr. Harper said.
“There’s going to be another pandemic,” he said. “And if we have to fight it without public trust, that’s the worst possible response.”
Congratulations, you’ve reached the final day of the Brain Health Challenge! Today, we’re asking you to do a few things that might feel a bit out of left field — like getting your blood pressure checked.
No, it isn’t as fun as playing Pips, but experts say it’s one of the most important things you can do for your brain. That’s because heart health and brain health are intrinsically linked.
High blood pressure, in particular, can damage brain cells, and it’s a significant risk factor for stroke and dementia. When blood pressure is too high, it places stress on the walls of arteries in the brain. Over time, that added stress can cause the blood vessel walls to thicken, obstructing blood flow. In other cases, the increased pressure causes the artery walls to thin and leak blood into the brain.
These changes to the blood vessels can sometimes cause a large stroke to occur. More commonly, the damage leads to micro-strokes and micro-hemorrhages, which cause fewer immediate problems and often go unnoticed. But if someone has hypertension for years or decades, these injuries can build up, and the person may start to experience cognitive impairment.
High blood pressure “is known as a silent killer for lots of reasons,” said Dr. Shyam Prabhakaran, the chair of neurology at the University of Chicago. “It doesn’t cause you any symptoms until it does.”
Because the damage accumulates over many years, experts say that managing blood pressure in midlife matters most for brain health. Hypertension can be addressed with medication or lifestyle changes, as directed by your doctor. But the first thing you need to do is know your numbers. If your blood pressure comes back higher than 120/80, it’s important to take it seriously, Dr. Prabhakaran said.
While you’re at it, there are a few other aspects of your physical health that you should check on.
Your eyes and ears are two of them. Hearing and vision loss have both been shown to increase the risk of dementia. Experts think that with less sensory information coming in to stimulate the brain, the regions that process hearing and vision can start to atrophy. What’s more, people with sensory loss often withdraw or are left out of social interactions, further depriving them of cognitive stimulation.
Oral health can also affect your brain health. Research has found a connection between regular flossing and reduced odds of having a stroke. That may be because good oral health can help to reduce inflammation in the body. The bacteria that cause gum disease have also been tied to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.
And have you gotten your shingles vaccine? There is mounting evidence that it’s a powerful weapon for protecting against dementia. One study found that it lowered people’s odds of developing the condition by as much as 20 percent.
To wrap up this challenge, we want you to schedule a few medical appointments that benefit your brain, as well as your body.
After five days of feeding, exercising and challenging your brain, you are well on your way to better cognitive health. Thanks for joining me this week, and keep up the good habits!
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The Trump administration has taken a new approach to the food pyramid.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidelines on Wednesday with an updated, inverted pyramid. The top of the pyramid, which is now the wider part of the structure, is built on meat, fats, fruits and vegetables, while whole grains are at the narrow bottom.
This follows HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), aimed at addressing chronic disease, childhood illnesses and ultraprocessed foods.
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“The new guidelines recognize that whole, nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs,” Kennedy said during a press briefing in Washington, D.C.
“Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats.”
The Trump administration announces the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, putting “real food” back at the center of health. (realfood.gov)
The HHS secretary rallied against refined carbohydrates, food additives and added sugar, highlighting the health risks associated with sugar-sweetened beverages.
Kennedy’s main message to Americans was to “eat real food.”
TRUMP ADMIN’S NEW NUTRITION GUIDELINES TARGET ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS, EASE UP ON RED MEAT AND SATURATED FATS
The announcement triggered reactions from top health and wellness voices, including Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, host of the “Huberman Lab” podcast.
In a post on X, Huberman shared the White House’s graphic of the new pyramid, praising the decisions that were made.
“Oatmeal (and I think that’s rice and sourdough) made the cut!” he commented. “In all seriousness, assuming overall calories are kept in check and people exercise & get sun(day)light, this looks spot on.”
He added, “Maybe up the veggies a bit, add low-sugar fermented foods like sauerkraut & this is great.”
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Huberman said in a thread on the same post that Americans “don’t have to eat all the foods” shown in the diagram.
“You won’t see me drinking milk or eating shrimp,” he said. “Nothing against shrimp, I just don’t like the taste. Aversion to crustaceans.”
“Maybe up the veggies a bit, add low-sugar fermented foods like sauerkraut & this is great,” Huberman commented on X. (Chance Yeh/Getty Images for HubSpot; iStock)
The new guidelines received praise from other major health figures, including former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler.
“There should be broad agreement that eating more whole foods and reducing highly processed carbohydrates is a major advance in how we approach diet and health,” Kessler told The Associated Press.
“Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines.”
Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, shared in a statement that these guidelines “affirm that food is medicine and offer clear direction patients and physicians can use to improve health.”
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“The American Medical Association applauds the Administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for spotlighting the highly processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and excess sodium that fuel heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other chronic illnesses,” Mukkamala wrote.
The American Medical Association applauded the HHS for its updated nutrition guidelines. (iStock)
But not all feedback was positive.
Some people expressed concern about prioritizing red meat and dairy, while calling for the limitation of saturated fat.
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Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, shared in a reaction to STAT that while the guidelines “do have one or two good points, emphasizing fruits and vegetables and limiting alcohol,” the guidelines are “for the most part a strong reflection of industry influence.”
Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University, also spoke out against the new guidelines, as reported by NPR.
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“I’m very disappointed in the new pyramid that features red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top, as if that’s something to prioritize. It does go against decades and decades of evidence and research,” said Gardner, who was a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf, as well as Alexandria Hoff of Fox News, contributed reporting.
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