The Great Influenza

Just finished reading The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.

On page after page he documents how federal, state, and local governments made things worse as the killer flu of 1918 swept through the nation and around the world. Basically, the bureaucracies were slow to respond, and then spread overly cheery propaganda rather than useful but depressing information.

Meanwhile, a fairly small number of early medical scientists did what they could, mostly struggling against the government.

Of course, the author thinks the lesson is that the government needs to do a better job, to be ready for the next uber-flu.

Or maybe the government needs to get out of the way,
And let a free market in medicine save the day.