WASHINGTON - Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century.
The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks.
Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged.
Like then, science is unable to crush an insidious yet avoidable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it.
In 1918, no one had a vaccine, treatment or cure for the misnamed Spanish flu as it ravaged the world and killed more than 50 million people. No one has any of that for the coronavirus now.
