Letter to the Editor - Forewarned is forearmed

Of the many lessons my parents taught this old man over the years, a couple seem especially apropos for today.

The first is “history repeats itself,” and the second is “forewarned is forearmed.”

We find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic just as people across countless eras and ages before us have. But unlike previous generations, we have advanced knowledge and tools and the hard-earned lessons gleaned from their experiences to guide and preserve us.

The many Louis Pasteurs who discovered the causes and found the cures, the Samuel Pepyses who shared the horrors of the plagues with...