Recalling The 1957 Asian Flu Pandemic

[Damaged Goods]

It killed between 1-2 million worldwide and 100,000 in the US. 40,000 were vaccinated but the vaccination stopped because the medicos deemed it ineffective. There were 96 of us kiddos in Sister Mary Gerald's 8th grade class. Class sizes were larger back then especially in parochial schools because when it came to maintaining order and discipline, even the toughest US Marine boot camp drill instructor had nothing on a pre-1960 teaching nun. But I digress.

Anyway, 95 of us missed at least three days of class, some considerably longer. There was one kiddo who didn't miss any time, as well as good Sr. Mary Gerald.

There was no shut down of the stock market or the country in general. There were no masks and the only social distancing was that which occurred normally between the more popular and the uncool. I guess we just had different priorities then. I wonder how many would have died if we "mitigated" back then. Only the shadow knows.

 

[Gaer]

Only the shadow knows? hahaha! I forgot all about that! You sure have a good memory! I recall it vaguely now but sure don't remember much about it. Wow!
Oh! NOW I KNOW why. I had just discovered boys!

 

[Manatee]

I was on a Navy ship, we had left Gibraltar headed back to the states. We were about 125 Navy and 300 Marines. The flu went around the ship and some were unable to get out of their bunks. I had a mild case so I stood my watches in one of the engine rooms. The ship had diesel engines so there was not anything difficult to be done. At sea there was no television, internet or broadcast radio, so we had no knowledge of a pandemic or anything else going on. By time we got back to Norfolk it was over and I never did hear anything about it until a few days ago.