Spanish Flu Pandemic

[GAlady]

The Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918-1920 was the most catastrophic event killing 50 million people. Below is a couple walking in New York during that time. Notice the small masks.

 

[Aunt Bea]

It's interesting that the reaction and mitigation efforts in 1918 were very similar to what we are experiencing today.

https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-syracuse.html

 

[Fyrefox]

The Spanish Flu was extremely lethal and could kill quickly, with accounts of people going to work in the morning to be dead by evening. My father was a small boy during the Spanish Flu Pandemic near a major city outbreak area. I have often mused that had he not survived, I wouldn’t exist either, at least not in my current form. How strange and unfathomable are the tides of destiny!

 

[PamfromTx]

 

[PamfromTx]

 

[Lara]

 

[Lara]

They didn't mess around..."Wear a Mask or go to Jail"

 

[Capt Lightning]

My grandmother died in 1919 and I often wondered if it was down to the 'Spanish' flu.

 

[Tommy]

My wife's grandfather was assigned to Fort Custer (Michigan) during the epidemic. He recounted "stacking bodies like cord wood". The guys in his unit were given a substantial allotment of whiskey every day to "protect them from catching the flu". I suspect that was more of a personnel management tactic than a medical expedient.

 

[JonDouglas]

Does anyone remember that Anthony Fauci co-authored a paper stating that most deaths in the 1917-1918 flu pandemic were due to bacterial pnuemonia, not the virus. He recently changed his position on the risks of bacterial infection from wearing masks. Reality suggests that having the virus and dying from the virus can be two different things.

History can be instructive, if not accurate.