A hundred years ago, November 11, 1918, the armistice ending four years of fighting the Great War was signed. Armistice Day was later renamed Veterans Day. The Great War became known as World War I to differentiate it from the even greater war that broke out in 1939, a little more than twenty years later. WW I killed 8.5 million combatants, another 28 million wounded or missing. Add to that a million or so civilian deaths. The end of the war did not mean people stopped dying, however.
As the Great War was nearing its end the great Spanish flu pandemic began taking hold of the world. The disease did not originate in Spain but the news of it did. Spain did not impose the stringent news blackouts that the Allied and Central countries did. The previously unknown strain of influenza killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Some estimates are lower, some much higher; medical record keeping was haphazard in those days. A third of the world’s population, about 500 million people, was infected. Best estimates are that 675,000 died in the U.S. Unlike other influenza outbreaks, the 1918 disease was unusually hard on young, healthy males, More American servicemen died from the flu than from the war.
With no real known way to effectively combat the disease, quarantines were imposed, citizens ordered to wear masks. Schools, churches theaters and other public places were closed. Libraries stopped lending books. Spitting on the sidewalk became a crime. People were told to avoid shaking hands and to stay indoors.
Since 1918, the world has suffered several other influenza pandemics, but none as deadly. Influenza in 1957-1958 killed around 2 million people worldwide, 70,000 in the United States. The 1968-1969 flu season killed approximately a million people, including 34,000 Americans. More than 12,000 died from “swine” flu (H1N1) in 2009-2010.
Flu season generally runs from late fall into the spring. In a typical year, more than 200,000 Americans are hospitalized for flu-related symptoms. Over the past three decades, flu-related deaths in the U.S. ranged from 3,000 to 49,000 annually.
Today of course, we have more effective ways of dealing with influenza. Inoculations against the virus are readily available. Just as we have willfully ignorant climate-change deniers, there are those who claim that flu shots are worse than the disease. They’re wrong. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the vaccine reduces your chances of catching the flu by 40% to 60%, depending on the strain. It also reduces your need to be hospitalized if you do catch it and reduces your chance of dying from it. Put your trust in the medical and scientific communities.
GET YOUR FLU SHOT
My mother wasn’t yet born, but she lost her middle brother, Arthur, to the 1918 pandemic. He was only 6 at the time. Medical care was not like today’s care. A nurse was caring for Arthur at home. To help his breathing while fighting this flu, the nurse forced a tube down Arthur’s throat and ended up choking him to death.
Thanks George for the reminder