In early 2020, the World Health Organization [Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Links to an external site.] declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Some of the events that followed such a declaration mirrored the response (or lack thereof) from governmental officials and citizens alike during the 1918 flu pandemic. What can we learn from how governmental officials and the citizens reacted in both pandemics in order to determine what we need to do differently to prepare during the next epidemic (from a communicable infection) from becoming the next pandemic?
