4 ms·

A Key Lesson from the 1918 Flu Pandemic? 'Tell the Truth,' One Historian Says

55 points by Aloha 9y ago

tritium 9y ago
The 2014 ebola outbreak is, I think, really, the closest we’ve come to this kind of true fear (since 1918) of a fast-acting deadly illness, capable of killing within days, and frighteningly accidentally infectious. I can’t speak to much of anything happening outside the U.S. prior to 1970, but if I’ve ever experienced anything that seems like a reasonable pairing with the 1918 pandemic, that’s the only thing that comes to mind. I remember the news of it emerging in just a few weeks, and hearing level-headed people commenting that this thing seemed to be turning into “quite a thing” and when reasonable people raise an eyebrow, it really magnifies the gravity of an anxiety that just immerses you in this sort of fatiguing alertness, to say the least. You’re excited, but at a time when there’s no urgency to act, and you wonder if that might be your last error: failing to recognize what that all-important warning sign was to be, or was supposed to have been. Is it time to panic yet? How will I know if it is? The flu is just this typical sort of seasonal thing, for as long as I’ve been alive. But I imagine what the ebola outbreak felt like, is a stone’s throw from what the 1918 pandemic really became in the sense of a social atmosphere worthy of the fear it produced.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  I wonder if there is any comparison. By percentage the 2014 outbreak was most severe in Liberia, infecting 0.25% of the population and killing about ½ of that. In the 1918 flu pandemic, a death toll of 10% of the population was common. We'd lose our fucking minds if something killing whole percentages of the population was going around the US.
- rwallace 9y ago
  Ebola didn't come close, but SARS, in 2002, did; it was similar in all ways to the 1918 flu, including lethality: high single-digit percentage of the population in affected areas had it spread unchecked. Fortunately, the threat was recognized and the disease was stopped with an aggressive campaign of contact tracing and quarantine, or the death toll would have been several hundred million. The universe is a far more hostile place than we remember in the course of an average day.
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pipio21 9y ago
The interesting thing is that it was called the Spanish flu because Spain was neutral in the war and there were not censorship. There has been several studies that has followed the flu to their origins by wax samples in Hospitals, and now it is very clear that it was the war conditions what made it so powerful: The overcrowding and bad hygienic state of barracks,trenches and bad feeding of the fighting population, made spreading of the flu exponential. Now it is international traveling what could spread illnesses, in the last two weeks I have traveled over 4 different Continents. Megacities like Shanghai with 30 million people provide the overcrowding, but people are stronger and better feed than in the war.
nonbel 9y ago
>"Everyone could see that this was a lethal pandemic. Some of the symptoms were horrific — bleeding not only from your nose and mouth but from your eyes and ears. And yet the authorities were saying, 'This is just ordinary influenza.'" Sounds like more info consistent with the aspirin poisoning theory: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441 I think in general people really underestimate the damage that poorly understood medical interventions can do.
lsv1 9y ago
I read a great book which covers the Spanish Flu called The Great Influenza (https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-Barry/dp/0143036491 https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-Barry/dp/...) by John M. Barry. The book does a great job of expressing the history of medicine leading up to the 1918 Spanish Flu. But above all the book goes into detailed recollection on the arrogance of leadership in the face of this deadly disease. From politicians listing it as merely a regular flu, to military generals choosing not to quarantine troops... leading to massive casualties and the spread of the disease. All leading up to a realization of severity, when proper measures are taken. I believe a newer print also has a note about Swine Flu, my copy is fairly old and does not include this.

55 points by Aloha 9y ago

The 2014 ebola outbreak is, I think, really, the closest we’ve come to this kind of true fear (since 1918) of a fast-acting deadly illness, capable of killing within days, and frighteningly accidentally infectious. I can’t speak to much of anything happening outside the U.S. prior to 1970, but if I’ve ever experienced anything that seems like a reasonable pairing with the 1918 pandemic, that’s the only thing that comes to mind. I remember the news of it emerging in just a few weeks, and hearing level-headed people commenting that this thing seemed to be turning into “quite a thing” and when reasonable people raise an eyebrow, it really magnifies the gravity of an anxiety that just immerses you in this sort of fatiguing alertness, to say the least. You’re excited, but at a time when there’s no urgency to act, and you wonder if that might be your last error: failing to recognize what that all-important warning sign was to be, or was supposed to have been. Is it time to panic yet? How will I know if it is? The flu is just this typical sort of seasonal thing, for as long as I’ve been alive. But I imagine what the ebola outbreak felt like, is a stone’s throw from what the 1918 pandemic really became in the sense of a social atmosphere worthy of the fear it produced.

maxerickson 9y ago
I wonder if there is any comparison. By percentage the 2014 outbreak was most severe in Liberia, infecting 0.25% of the population and killing about ½ of that. In the 1918 flu pandemic, a death toll of 10% of the population was common. We'd lose our fucking minds if something killing whole percentages of the population was going around the US.
rwallace 9y ago
Ebola didn't come close, but SARS, in 2002, did; it was similar in all ways to the 1918 flu, including lethality: high single-digit percentage of the population in affected areas had it spread unchecked. Fortunately, the threat was recognized and the disease was stopped with an aggressive campaign of contact tracing and quarantine, or the death toll would have been several hundred million. The universe is a far more hostile place than we remember in the course of an average day.
- deleted 9y ago
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deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

pipio21 9y ago

The interesting thing is that it was called the Spanish flu because Spain was neutral in the war and there were not censorship. There has been several studies that has followed the flu to their origins by wax samples in Hospitals, and now it is very clear that it was the war conditions what made it so powerful: The overcrowding and bad hygienic state of barracks,trenches and bad feeding of the fighting population, made spreading of the flu exponential. Now it is international traveling what could spread illnesses, in the last two weeks I have traveled over 4 different Continents. Megacities like Shanghai with 30 million people provide the overcrowding, but people are stronger and better feed than in the war.

nonbel 9y ago

>"Everyone could see that this was a lethal pandemic. Some of the symptoms were horrific — bleeding not only from your nose and mouth but from your eyes and ears. And yet the authorities were saying, 'This is just ordinary influenza.'" Sounds like more info consistent with the aspirin poisoning theory: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441 I think in general people really underestimate the damage that poorly understood medical interventions can do.

lsv1 9y ago

I read a great book which covers the Spanish Flu called The Great Influenza (https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-Barry/dp/0143036491 https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-Barry/dp/...) by John M. Barry. The book does a great job of expressing the history of medicine leading up to the 1918 Spanish Flu. But above all the book goes into detailed recollection on the arrogance of leadership in the face of this deadly disease. From politicians listing it as merely a regular flu, to military generals choosing not to quarantine troops... leading to massive casualties and the spread of the disease. All leading up to a realization of severity, when proper measures are taken. I believe a newer print also has a note about Swine Flu, my copy is fairly old and does not include this.