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We must face the truth – we have not faced a health crisis on this scale since the deadly influenza pandemic in 1918-1919.

Coronavirus presents the most severe challenge to Americans collectively since the Second World War. Normal life has been put on ice for the foreseeable future. Businesses are shuttered. Factories are making rapid changes to manufacture vitally medical supplies. Medical personnel in hospitals are fighting back against the onslaught of COVID-19.

We are living through a once-in-a-generation event right now. There’s no denying it.

As a historian, there is something I’d like readers to do during these trying times. Keep a journal. Start a diary. Take notes on what daily life has become no matter where you or what you are doing.

Your experiences in the COVID spring of 2020 are going to be of immense historical interest in the future. Researchers and historians in the future will be able to use these journals and diaries to tell the collective story of the coronavirus outbreak, and its impact in Pennsylvania and around the world.

We are all living through an important historical moment. This is a perfect moment to leave traces of yourself and your experiences for future generations.

Jake Wynn

Washington, DC.