by Anne Mier, BGSU History major. This is one in a series of posts written by students in HIST 4800 in Spring, 2020, putting our world into historical context for the public.

COVID-19 has been a stressful and scary time for a lot of people because their entire lives have been practically taken away from them. This virus is different from others because it can infect anyone, so there is no avoiding it.  In a time like this, it can be easy to put the blame on someone or a particular group. Especially when the first cases were being diagnosed and there wasn’t a lot of information, it was easy to jump to conclusions. Rather than blaming those who aren’t following the rules of social distancing, a lot of people have been blaming Chinese people or anyone that is perceived to be Asian for being the source of the virus.

by Victoria Masson, BGSU History major. This is one in a series of posts written by students in HIST 4800 in Spring, 2020, putting our world into historical context for the public.

In 1918, the world was fighting the “Spanish flu” which came from birds. It was thought to have come from Spain, but researchers showed that it came from New York. More than 50 million people have died from this according to the article “1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Versus COVID- 19″. (.https://www.biospace.com/article/compare-1918-spanish-influenza-pandemic-versus-covid-19/).  At that time there were no vaccines for it and currently no vaccines for COVID-19. The current pandemic helps us understand the past because it affected people all over the world.