Governments Have Suppressed the Dangers of Epidemics Before, Only Making Things Worse
The mainstream American press has agreed – at the request of the government – not to report on suspected Ebola cases.
Let’s provide some context …
The U.S. National Academies of Science noted in 2005 (starting on the bottom of p. 64):
In the United States, national and local government and public health authorities badly mishandled the [1918 “Spanish Flu”] epidemic [which killed up to 50 million peopleworldwide], offering a useful case study.
The context is important. Every country engaged in World War I tried to control public perception. To avoid hurting morale, even in the nonlethal first wave the press in countries fighting in the war did not mention the outbreak. (But Spain was not at war and its press wrote about it, so the pandemic became known as the Spanish flu).
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