Spanish flu and Covid-19: Pandemics and the Roaring Twenties

In the wake of the tragedy of the First World War, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 left Britain in a disastrous state. However, the horror of this illness was forgotten as the British population roared into the 20s and the buzz of the jazz age.

Especially relevant now as we emerge from the shadow of our own pandemic, Catharine Arnold, author of Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History, compares the two pandemics and asks: what, if any, lessons have been learned, and can we expect another Roaring Twenties?