While only time will tell how we come out of the COVID-19 Pandemic, researchers are looking back on the Spanish Influenza of 1918 to search for global health and economic patterns. Turns out, many things that transpired a century ago are reflected in our current state of affairs. In 1918, inventors and businessmen were on the verge of enormous technological breakthroughs, not unlike the same tech boom we have continued to see just within the last five years alone. However, just like then, we too have overlooked the potential setbacks and crises that might get in the way of human progress, global warming being the biggest factor there.
1918 also saw many global political upsets and economic unrest. Today, we deal with the presidency of Donald Trump, a distressing U.S. political climate on both sides, tensions with superpowers like North Korea, and a steadily declining stock market thanks to COVID-19. Many countries then turned inward to support their more immediate needs which they hoped would strengthen their economy faster, much like how we are practicing stay-at-home measures, closing borders, and stalling trade due to Coronavirus. However, these "solutions" aren't necessarily longterm fixes.
Though nobody can definitively say how the COVID-19 pandemic will end, historians certainly do have a roadmap to build off of. As history tends to work in trends and patterns, it's only a matter of time before the next parallel takes shape.