ABSTRACT
The appearance and subsequent diffusion of COVID-19 forced many bars and restaurants across the United States to close their doors and discontinue normal business practices. This included over 8000 craft breweries. As a result of COVID-19 directives, craft breweries were restricted to curbside pick-up and home delivery of the beer they produced, forcing them to rethink and redesign an important part of their business model. The primary purpose of this chapter is to assess how craft breweries responded to the restrictions placed upon them. A historical review of how the 1918-19 influenza pandemic impacted the brewing industry in the United States is also provided. Similarities between how COVID-19 and the 1918-19 influenza pandemics impacted their period's respective brewing industries are identified. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
We compared the COVID-19 and 1918-19 influenza pandemics in the United Kingdom. We found that the ongoing COVID-19 wave of infection matched the major wave of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic surprisingly well, with both reaching similar magnitudes (in terms of estimated weekly new infections) and spending the same duration with over five cases per 1000 inhabitants over the previous two months. We also discussed the similarities in epidemiological characteristics between these two pandemics.