Word spread like wildfire in a matter of hours: Go down to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and make some noise for the health care workers combating Covid-19. 

With public gatherings prohibited by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s New York State on PAUSE executive order, Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident and candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, has taken his series of town hall-style meetings to cyberspace.

While most of us have never experienced anything like the Covid-19 pandemic, the parallels with the 1918 influenza pandemic are significant.