The COVID-19 pandemic is often drawing comparison to the 1918 influenza pandemic (The Spanish Flu). While the 1918 flu pandemic had a far more devastating global impact than it appears COVID-19 will have, looking back at history reveals just how similarly the world of the past and the world of the the present have responded to our respective outbreaks. Ventura resident and historian Cynthia Thompson has been digging into the past to learn about how the community responded to the 1918 pandemic, and what history can tell us about the present and future.