Today, there are nearly 8 billion on the planet. In 1918, the world population was much smaller with an estimated 1.8 billion people.
It's also important to consider population when talking about outbreaks or disasters, said Samantha Montano of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, who studies disasters. That was not typical for previous flu pandemics or subsequent ones." "But in 1918 it was a W shaped mortality curve and that upside-down part of the W, the V, was young people between ages 18 and 40 dying like flies. "Influenza generally has a U shaped mortality curve, meaning it looks like a U, but the tops of the U are the most deadly," Markel said. While the coronavirus can be especially severe for the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, the 1918 virus was unusual in that it killed many young adults, Markel said. With World War I, there was a massive movement of men across all of America and Europe. The 1918 virus also tended to kill differently than Covid-19, Mooney and Markel noted. "Now we have a much greater capacity to create a preventative mechanism through immunizations and vaccinations," Mooney said. In fact, some scientists thought the 1918 virus was caused by a bacteria called Haemophilus influenzae, he said. They didn't have the technology and they knew almost nothing of virology, which was considered a nascent science because viruses are so small, he said. Scientists hadn't even seen a virus under the microscope at that point, said Graham Mooney, a medical historian at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Thomas Dyer Tuttle, who became a powerful, if polarizing, figure in the fight against the Spanish flu," according to Forbes. "At the center of public health efforts in both states was a practical, plainspoken, bespectacled scientist: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who withstood criticism for publicly pressing for safety protocols, according to Forbes. "You got a bed or maybe nursing care," Markel said.īut there was an epidemiologist much like Dr. Additionally, there were no antibiotics, intensive care units, ventilators, IV fluids or vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration existed but consisted of a very small group of men. Unlike today, there was no CDC or national public health department. It was primarily a city and state role and those agencies were hardly downplaying it," he said. "The federal government played a very small role in American public health during that era. effort in World War I and once the war ended, he sailed for Paris, where he stayed until April of 1919 organizing a peace treaty and the League of Nations, Markel said. Pandemic newsĪdditionally, some reports have suggested that then-President Woodrow Wilson downplayed the virus, but that is a "wrong and a false trope of popular history," Markel said. Wilson, who would later contract the virus, was organizing and commanding the U.S. "One woman, a downtown attorney, argued to Mayor Rolph that the mask ordinance was 'absolutely unconstitutional' because it was not legally enacted, and that as a result, every police officer who had arrested a mask scofflaw was personally liable," according to.
San Francisco residents considered masks a nuisance while others harbored resentment for being forced to wear them, he said. Some of them were arrested.
But some people refused to comply or take them seriously, Markel said.
cities implemented mandates, describing them as a symbol of "wartime patriotism." In San Francisco, Mayor James Rolph said, "conscience, patriotism and self-protection demand immediate and rigid compliance," according to. In Europe, the Italian Supreme Command asked residents not to fail their cities by not wearing a mask. People during the 1918 pandemic called them dirt traps and some clipped holes so they could smoke cigars. As it turns out, resistance to wearing the face coverings isn't new. "It was the patriotic thing to do to not cough on people or stay home if you were sick."īut the thing that really drew public backlash were mask recommendations. "You told people to wash your hands, don't cough on people, stay at home, stay away from other people," he said.
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