It’s Time to Tell a New Story About Coronavirus—Our Lives Depend on It

In the summer of 1832, a mysterious scourge that had come all the way from Asia loomed over the city of New York, having ravaged London, Paris, and Montreal. Medical officials collected data showing that the disease—cholera—was spreading along the newly opened Erie Canal and the Hudson River, heading straight to New York City. But New York’s leaders did not attempt to regulate traffic coming down the waterways.

The demands of commerce were part of the reason; officials knew that shutting down the routes would have disrupted powerful commercial interests....