A lot of our focus on historical lookbacks for our pandemic thinking has been on 1918 because most of our policy thinking has been about preventative measures, bans on public gatherings and such

But consider the 1862 smallpox epidemic in the Salish Sea https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 

And instead of focusing on what our colonial communities did to protect ourselves, but how we used the pandemic to destroy Indian communities.

What is the historical lesson here?

Power dynamics still exist and the powerful won't let a crisis go to waste. Keep a close eye on who is in charge during a crisis, watch what they say and do and make sure everyone is protected.