Included here are the bubonic plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, and polio.  In the chapter (ominously called Censorship Kills) about the 1918 flu pandemic that is estimated to have killed at least 40 million people, Wright details the massive cover-up by the government, health officials, and journalists:

Hushing up the epidemic took more and more work by the press…headlines in the El Paso Herald proclaimed “Vicious Rumors of Influenza Epidemic Will Be Combatted,” while sailors were told to write home and tell their relatives not to worry about the stories spreading about the disease.

And chillingly:

In Chicago, where the health commissioner claimed he’d “do nothing to interfere with the morale of the community” as “fear kills more than disease,” the death rate climbed from 15 percent of the afflicted to 40 percent that same month.

Jennifer Wright is like the Mary Roach of history.  Her incredibly informative but also hopeful history of pandemics might be just what you need right now.