(40-43) A HISTORY LESSON ON THE PANDEMIC 2020.10.29
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, people have begun “social distancing”—
keeping a safe space between you and anyone you don’t live with. Though it
has been a very popular topic this year, social distancing__40__ . In fact, it was
widely used in the U.S. in the flu pandemic in 1918. But how well did it work? The
Americans’ experience can tell us whether it really saved lives.
From the picture, we can see that__41__ started social distancing earlier than
the other three cities. This helped the city keep the number of deaths down. Besides
taking early action, keeping the action long enough was also important in fighting
the pandemic. The picture shows that Portland and Denver did well in the first few
weeks. However, both cities__42__ , and the numbers of deaths climbed again.
But there was one thing Portland did right. The city used several ways of social
distancing at the same time to deal with the pandemic.__43__ , sick people were kept
away from healthy ones; schools were closed; public activities were not allowed. All
these were useful in keeping people safe.
The lessons of the 1918 pandemic bring us hope. While we are still learning to
fight Covid-19, social distancing may be the best way to get us through the dark days,
at least for now.