Lessons learntfrom COVID-19 and the flu pandemic of 1918

Despite being colloquially referred to as the Spanish Flu there is limited evidence surrounding the origin of the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic. But this pandemic is has become one of the major points of comparison to COVID-19 due to the rapid spread, and being a novel form of a viral infection that had effected the world many times before. Despite a large technological jump between 1918 and the modern day many parallels can be drawn and many issues that faced societies in 1918 have not yet been overcome. What lessons can we draw from history in the handling of pandemics?