Health
Masks, lockdowns, fines and a devastating second wave: a century on, history repeats – The Age
Mebourne in 1919 could have taught us not to get complacent with pandemics.
But within weeks of restrictions easing, the unfairly-termed “Spanish” flu Influenza A(H1N1) returned with even more ferocity and infections soared.
For today’s masked Melburnians, it sounds uneasily familiar.
Historian Mary Sheehan, who is researching the Spanish flu in Victoria for her doctorate, said Australia’s modern health and welfare systems would be “totally foreign” to our forebears of a century earlier.
But in the mask debate, absurd remedies, second waves, fines and border bunfight…
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