Another partially finished post from the archives today. I wrote the words in italics in June 2021. I’ll finish the thoughts once you’ve read what I wrote then.

Once upon a time there was a pandemic. Millions of people got sick all around the world. A few million of those died.

I know you were thinking COVID-19, but that isn’t what I was referring to. I read an article a few weeks back about a pandemic I had never heard of – even though I lived through it.

The Wall Street Journal piece on the flu pandemic of 1957-58 was very informative. If I have the math right, a greater percentage of people died of flu that year than have died of COVID in the past 18 months.

Today’s world leaders have responded very differently to a health care challenge than their counterparts a generation ago. Back then, it seems, the general feeling was that these things happen and the best response was to take appropriate precautions and soldier on.

No school shutdowns. No business shutdowns. No lockdowns. Life went on normally, with people taking appropriate measures when they felt ill.

Were politicians then more callous? Did they not understand people were dying? Or did they understand that death is part of life and taking extraordinary measures could make things worse, not better.

I don’t have any answers to those questions. I do know that Canada (and the rest of the world) was unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been four years since the world shut down. Things are more or less open again – with health authorities always, it seems warning, of a possible downturn leading to closures.

I am not aware of any comprehensive report looking at what was done right and what we can do better the next time. Maybe I missed it. Maybe health authorities think the public doesn’t need that information.

With distrust of institutions having reached levels unheard of in my lifetime, we need to know that those ostensibly in charge are doing their job, and they have learned some lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Without that assurance I wonder if anyone will pay attention when the next pandemic hits.

And, if there is one lesson that history does teach, it is that there is always a next pandemic.