Learn from History

As sad, stressful and surreal as the current pandemic is, our grandparents (or depending on your age, your great grandparents) went through far worse.  The most devastating pandemic of modern history was the so-called Spanish Flu which struck in four waves between February 1918 and April 1920.  It is estimated that one third of the world's population was infected and as many as 50 million people died.  

The first outbreak occurred in the final year of World War I.  Censors in the U.S., Britain, France and Germany did not allow reports of the epidemic to be published so as not to hurt wartime morale.  But news from the neutral country of Spain (King Alfonso XIII was infected and gravely ill) gave the world the impression that this strain of flu originated and was prevalent in that nation.  Thus it was erroneously called the Spanish Flu, 

The first wave was relatively mild, but the second wave, which struck in August, was much more severe.  In Philadelphia, shortly after the appearance of the influenza and against the advice of some medical authorities, an enormous parade was held to promote the sale of bonds for the war effort.  More than 200,000 people attended.  Within a day, Philadelphians were coming down with the flu, and ultimately more than 17,000 residents of that city died.  

The second wave spread throughout the United States, and between September and December of 1918 around 292,000 people died.  In hard hit parts of the country schools and businesses were closed.  Health precautions such as quarantines, face masks, cancellation of events and social distancing were either recommended or enforced as law.  There was some resistance to the wearing of masks, and there was an "Anti-Mask League" in San Francisco.  (It all sounds depressingly familiar, doesn't it?)

As the second wave subsided, people joyously cast aside all precautions.  But by spring of 1919 a third wave struck.  It was not as deadly as the second wave, but tens of thousands of people in the U.S. died between April and June.  This wave was especially severe in Mexico and Great Britain.  A minor fourth wave occurred in the spring of 1920.

Alejandro found these vintage photos of people wearing masks during our grandparents' pandemic...

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.