Applying a very independent foreign politics.
The Klu Klux Klan was devoted to "100 percent Americanism"
Animals respond more quickly to a stimulus as animals have a central nervous system and a brain. Nerves conduct impulses very quickly. Plants dont have nerves and any responses are produced by hormones and are thus slow.
The Church helped spread panic and blame for the disease, and royalty was afraid, so they mainly tried to flee from the onset.