tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post7969694358958665502..comments2024-03-28T11:28:51.868-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: Flashback 1918: When flu stalked ChicagoNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-27039456352253557712020-03-31T20:14:14.675-05:002020-03-31T20:14:14.675-05:00Source: America: A Narrative History, Volume II (1...Source: America: A Narrative History, Volume II (1865-1995)<br />By George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi (Fourth Edition, 1996)<br /><br />A superb two-volume American history survey. <br />The Tenth Edition was published in 2016.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-37779685529213558172020-03-31T20:07:27.178-05:002020-03-31T20:07:27.178-05:00Grizz 65. Thanks. Like getting two great columns...Grizz 65. Thanks. Like getting two great columns for the price of one today. Always interesting to look back at this. Parallels some things today.Connellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18406704590565406630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-32660701299615184102020-03-31T19:10:53.347-05:002020-03-31T19:10:53.347-05:00Grizz, Very true about the Chinese laborers and th...Grizz, Very true about the Chinese laborers and that's a little known fact.<br />privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18413982311699012802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-69150915626507581542020-03-31T15:55:09.872-05:002020-03-31T15:55:09.872-05:00All this hunkering down has given me plenty of tim...All this hunkering down has given me plenty of time to go through my shelf of American history books. Much of the following comes from them.<br /><br /> "Never before," a writer in Science magazine noted in 1919, had there been "a catastrophe at once so sudden, so devastating, and so universal."<br /><br />A severe outbreak occurred in China, and was supposedly carried to Europe when 200,000 Chinese laborers were shipped to France in 1917 to help with the war effort. The disease spread rapidly and soon rolled across the Alps and Pyrenees into Italy and Spain. As many as eight million Spaniards contracted the virus in May and June of 1918. Hence the nickname--"Spanish Flu."<br /><br />(Is anything beginning to sound familiar yet?)<br /><br />American servicemen returning from France brought the flu with them, and it raced through the congested army camps and naval bases. When the hospitalized men started dying by the dozens, it became obvious that this was no ordinary flu virus. This flu epidemic exacted an unusually high toll among young adults, rather than among children and the elderly. In fact, 43,000 American servicemen died of influenza in 1918.<br /><br />By September 1918, the epidemic had spread to the civilian population. Millions of people began wearing surgical masks to work. And they didn't stay home. In 1918, if you didn't work, you didn't eat. There were not yet any safety nets. No unemployment checks or Social Security. No bailouts or stimulus money. And most Americans did not yet own a car. So they went to work on crowded streetcars and trains. Not a lot of social distancing there.<br /> <br />Victims often came home from work healthy, woke up sick the next morning, and were dead by evening. Life insurance companies nearly went bankrupt, hospitals were besieged, and cemeteries soon ran out of space. Thousands of burials occurred every day. At its peak, the daily death toll in the U.S. surpassed the 6,500 mark.<br /><br />Yet, by the spring of 1919, the pandemic had run its course. It ended as suddenly--and as inexplicably--as it had begun. No disease, plague, war, famine, or natural catastrophe in world history killed so many people in such a short time (A dubious record that may soon be broken).<br /> <br />The most remarkable aspect of the 1918-19 flu pandemic was that people actually seemed to take it in stride. The Feds downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak, so as not to alarm the populace, or to hinder the war effort. "Perhaps the most notable peculiarity of the infuenza epidemic," wrote a New York Times editor in November 1918, "is the fact that it has been attended by no traces of panic or even of excitement." <br /><br />A century ago, people seemed resigned to biological forces beyond their control, perhaps because mass communication was still in its infancy. Mostly just daily newspapers. No radio, TV, internet, electronic devices, and...most importantly...no 24/7 news cycle. People then knew what they saw in the papers, or often next to nothing. People today overdose on an unceasing ribbon of bad news, and eventually know too much. So they freak, and stores get wiped out (pun intended). <br /><br />Despite Woodrow Wilson's many faults, Americans in 1918-19 had someone in charge. No need to repeat here what we have...or don't have. And Wilson never labeled the flu as a fad, a delusion, or a hoax.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-32666206785603143732020-03-31T13:16:26.371-05:002020-03-31T13:16:26.371-05:00This is making me think of "Pale Horse, Pale ...This is making me think of "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," Katherine Anne Porter's classic about what it was like to live through both World War I (as a civilian) and the Spanish flu.Bitter Scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04645909858616987997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-27370390709848217142020-03-31T13:12:39.461-05:002020-03-31T13:12:39.461-05:00Great info for those who are unaware of our nation...Great info for those who are unaware of our nation’s encounter with flu in 1918. Gonna share your blog. Thank you for pulling it out of your archives.Janethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15373960140777556685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-83862938247085799762020-03-31T11:47:52.824-05:002020-03-31T11:47:52.824-05:0019th C.: "Asiatic Cholera" strikes Winfi...19th C.: "Asiatic Cholera" strikes Winfield Scott's soldiers stationed here to fight Black Hawk. 1855: Mayor Levi Boone, a GP who treated cholera patients, is elected on an "anti-immigrant ticket." He said cholera was brought here by "immigrants". I prefer history "rhymes" to "repeats itself" but, anyhoo. Spot on, Neil. Thanks again.J.J. Tindallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13381555158949851490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-8514080625602109812020-03-31T09:29:55.972-05:002020-03-31T09:29:55.972-05:00Prescient indeed!
We now, it turns out, are not a...Prescient indeed!<br /><br />We now, it turns out, are not all that better equipped to deal with this enemy as attributed by Mr. Kipling to "Our Fathers of Old."<br /><br /> "Wonderful little, when all is said.<br /> Wonderful little our fathers knew<br /> Half their remedies killed you dead.<br /> Most of their teaching was quite untrue."<br /><br />TomTomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09641357239788323783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-81331888990943587472020-03-31T07:59:01.937-05:002020-03-31T07:59:01.937-05:00This is always an interesting topic.This is always an interesting topic.privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18413982311699012802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-71723321544570655682020-03-31T03:39:24.971-05:002020-03-31T03:39:24.971-05:00Thanks Neil. While a lot of your readers are well ...Thanks Neil. While a lot of your readers are well aware of the 1918 pandemic, most of America is not. Even now. <br />Such a sad state for our Americans. To be so ignorant of their own History. I guess we can shorten that old adage to simply be Those ignorant of history are doomed....<br />Paul Fedrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04384556977324071639noreply@blogger.com