This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

About this time last year, I recorded an interview with a historian Nancy Bristow

about the eerie parallels between the influenza pandemic of 1918 and the COVID-19 pandemic a century later.

At the time, we didn't know how long the coronavirus outbreak would last.

We didn't know then that more than half a million Americans would die. Since we spoke,

we've seen multiple waves of infection, a first followed by a second, then a third. And now,

even as the country is rolling out vaccines to combat the virus,

the number of new infections remains high. In many other countries, infection rates are also rising.

A few weeks ago, one of the nation's top public health officials implored people not to let down

their guard. At one point, she put aside the data and spoke directly to the public.

I'm going to pause here. I'm going to lose the script,

and I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.

We have so much to look forward to and so much reason for hope, but right now I'm scared.

That's Rochelle Walinsky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

speaking at a White House briefing on March 29th.

Please hold on a little while longer.

I so badly want to be done.

I know you all so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done.

About a century ago, after a year of dealing with social distancing mandates, many Americans felt the same way.

The United States and lots of other countries around the globe had been pummeled by the deadly new strain of influenza.

New variants constantly popped up.

It seemed like the waves would never stop.

...