There are many similarities between the Dust Bowl Era of the 1930s and the Covid-19 Era today. As the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the North Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents, I enjoyed the opportunity to share some of these insights in a presentation titled “Resilience: Lessons Learned from the Dust Bowl and Covid-19 Eras.”
Some 7,000 people died from “dust pneumonia” during the Dust Bowl era. People wore masks to keep the dust our of their lungs. Children going to school might wear goggles and masks. Today we have face shields and masks.
During the Dust Bowl Era farmers were told to kill snakes and hang them (belly up) to attract rain. So-called experts used balloons to lift dynamite into the sky. They claimed the explosions “agitated” the atmosphere and caused rain to fall. Today we have people espousing untested drugs, UV light, and injecting disinfectants to prevent Covid-19. There are those who falsely claim covid vaccines alter your DNA, cause infertility, and contain microchips. The situation is different but similarities exist.
We survived the dust bowl and we will survive Covid-19 too. We must be resilient.
