We’ve been here before

History, like a bell, rings, hisses, crackles and echoes, if only we listen.On Sept. 8, 1918, the influenza pandemic arrived in the Chicago area. A few weeks later, new cases slowed enough for the Chicago Health Commissioner, Dr. John Dill Robertson, to say that authorities had “the Spanish influenza situation well in hand now.” He implemented epidemic controls slowly, as not to &ldquo …