Knowing and understanding the past is one of the approaches to dealing with the present issues. Currently the Human Being is practically "under attack", due the Covid19 pandemic.
When talking about analogous events, frequently specialists mention the Spanish flu (1918), not only because that was a world wide event, but because clinically this illness is a respiratory one too.
But, on the other hand, this pandemic took place in a almost "destroyed" World, resulting of the WWI; in fact, the spread of pandemic was, in the first place, the result of the War, directly and indirectly, and that is not the situation of today's World.
If one would want to model the present and the near future consequences of Covid19, from the economical and social point of view, which one do you select among past pandemics?
I think the most close will be the Influenza pandemic which rocked the world and led to several deaths worldwide.
Examining previous initiatives to deal with pandemics and epidemics can assist in answering this question:
1. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12306
2. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2019.1667564