, , and , The Washington Post; Coronavirus will radically alter the U.S.
Here’s what may lie ahead based on math models, hospital projections and past pandemics
"The power of the individual
Stanford
virologist Karla Kirkegaard said she has tried to stave off dread from
the projected U.S. death tolls with a case study she teaches in her
classes:
Amid a cholera outbreak in mid-19th century London, as panicked residents fled one hard-hit neighborhood, a doctor named John Snow
calmly entered the breach. He deduced that the source of hundreds of
deaths was a single contaminated water pump and persuaded authorities to
remove the pump’s handle — a strategy that ended the outbreak.
Controlling
the covid-19 pandemic will take much more than a single water pump,
Kirkegaard acknowledged as she sheltered in place at her Bay Area home.
But the story, she said, reminds her how powerful the simple act of one individual can be."
