‘You expected to die of diseases’ — Lessons from past pandemics

This isn’t the first time Congress has dealt with a pandemic, but the way the institution deals with it is similar to the ways it dealt with previous ones.

Our ability to eliminate much of the risk of disease to public health is one big change in the last century, particularly compared to the 1918 flu pandemic that killed up to 50 million people, including at least 675,000 Americans. Back then, as now, the House found some novel ways to consider legislation to respond to the pandemic and struggled at times to figure out what to do when it