Over the last few weeks, reporter Charles Du Higg has been obsessing over one thing,

how to change the odds when it comes to the coronavirus.

He lives in Brooklyn, has gotten used to the sounds of sirens whizzing by his house.

It got him wondering how a place like New York might turn things around, which is when

he started researching a place that had already done just that.

Seattle.

What's interesting is it's very unusual for a place to be the epicenter of an outbreak

and then stop being the epicenter.

And that's exactly what happened in Seattle.

So in 1918, if you'll remember, Philadelphia was one of the first very public outbreaks

of the disease and a large number of deaths.

You can see these pictures of them digging tranches for graves in Philadelphia.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And in the case of Philadelphia, it's because the leaders responded so poorly, right?

They still had this huge parade even when they knew that the influenza, the 1918 influenza,

was spreading.

But what's interesting is that Philadelphia remained somewhat of an epicenter throughout the entire pandemic.

I wanted to understand what did Seattle do that caused us to suddenly stop

preferring to it as the epicenter of this disease?

Why did you want to compare Seattle and New York in particular?

What was really interesting is that the outbreaks in Seattle and New York happen at roughly

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