This evolving coronavirus pandemic got me thinking. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is my mother’s survival of the 1918 flu epidemic. She was born in 1909, so, when that contagion hit Alpena, she was 8 or 9 years old — old enough to remember. She did.

What my mother remembered most clearly — spoke of on several occasions — was the quarantine. She and her family had been quarantined. She didn’t remember for how long but it had been of sufficient duration to yield a traumatic consequence that formed a lifelong impression.

My mother’s father had passed away when she was only 3 years old. She, her siblings, and their mother had to face that deadly threat alone in their little home on 13th Steet.

Remembering my mother’s telling of those times, something now stands out that previously hadn’t. After each imparting of the quarantine’s unpleasantness, she would conclude with the remark, “Can you imagine?”

As an adult, she had come to believe the isolation she experienced as a child was now an old-fashioned, even primitive approach, one no longer playing a part in any public health protocol.

“Can you imagine? We were quarantined?”

Yes, mother, I can.

In the current issue of “Scientific American,” an interesting and timely article appears: “Lessons From Past Outbreaks Could Help Fight The Coronaviruus Epidemic.”(scientificamerican.com/article/lessons-from-

past-outbreaks-could-help-the-coronavirus-pandemic1/)

Here’s a quote from “The Journal of The American Medical Society,” taken from that article:

“Although every virus and resulting disease is different, a look at epidemic dynamics of both COVID -19 and the 1918 flu point to similar successful containment measures”

What were those successful containment measures?

” The 1918 Influenza pandemic and the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak suggest social distancing measures, communication, and international cooperation are the most effective methods to slow COVID -19 ”

We’ve been down this road before.

If my mother were alive today, I’m confident she would be surprised to learn the infection control method she experienced as a child is a cutting-edge response in combating this pandemic.

It’s frustrating — especially so, I’m sure — to those medical professionals who warned us and who are now watching our late response’s fragmented implementation.

Of course, every situation is different, mistakes will be made under the best of conditions, let alone times like these.

But shouldn’t we have been better prepared to meet basic predictable needs? Shouldn’t face masks and personal protective equipment been maintained in sufficient quantity to protect medical workers? We knew this was coming, the only question was when?

These afflictions commonly present respiratory challenges — why weren’t there more ventilators or plans to expeditiously produce them? Why wasn’t a national response plan in place and implemented? Why hasn’t there been more international coordination?

After all, these afflictions are what they have always been — worldwide challenges.

***

I endeavor to stay ahead in this column-writing business. Having a couple completed columns in the column bank is a good stress-reduction tool.

So it was with last week’s column. I had substantially completed it several days before its deadline but I tried to bring it up to date just before being locked in the press by referencing a pandemic’s effect. That column finished as follows:

“We are comfortable here. (In Madeira) We miss our home but feel safe, somehow content. Until we get home, we’ll spend time walking along lanes, paths, and alleys all paved with art viewing the beauty of doors now closed.”

What a difference a few days can make.

Now, I pine to settle in my big recliner in my little home — to repose there — looking out at what is familiar through doors fully opened.

Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs weekly on Saturdays. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.