Between the years 1918 and1920, influenza raged around the globe in the worst pandemic in recorded history, killing at least fifty million people, more than half a million of them Americans. Yet despite the devastation, this catastrophic event seems but a forgotten moment in our nation's past.
The author shows that though the pandemic caused massive disruption in the most basic patterns of American life, influenza did not create long-term social or cultural change, serving instead to reinforce the status quo and the differences and disparities that defined American life. The pandemic would arrive quickly and dissipate quickly ultimate barely affecting the country as a whole except for the people and their families that were affected.
As the crisis waned, the pandemic slipped from the nation's public memory. The helplessness and despair Americans had suffered during the pandemic was a story poorly suited to a nation focused on optimism and progress. For countless survivors, though, the trauma never ended, shadowing the remainder of their lives with tragic memories.
It can be difficult to figure out where a pandemic begins. This author believes, amazingly, that this great pandemic began in a small town in Kansas in the spring of 1918. It spread quickly from there because the US was building up forces to send to Europe to embellish allied forces in what came to be called World War I. There was what's called a cantonment of US soldiers in this small Kansas town, and the soldiers carried the infection with them as they left Kansas. The war and the resulting mass movement of people worldwide mainly soldiers spread the virus quickly and in deadly fashion.
It can hard and inconclusive to determine the origin of a pandemic. Quick insinuations that the current pandemic originated in a lab in China is a case in point. Anyone can make such claims. All that matters ultimately is evidence that may never be conclusive.
"No one will ever know with absolute certainty whether the 1918-19 influenza virus did originate in Haskell County, Kansas." P. 98 There will always be other theories of origination.
One of the exciting side stories in this book is that the author gives the reader a sense of how modern, scientific medicine was born in this country from the late 19th Century into the early 20th Century. The germ theory of medicine was gradually accepted as it is today. It is amazing how long it took for the correct understanding to be accepted.
One of the other side stories is President Woodrow Wilson in Paris in 1919. The flu virus was still very much active. Wilson was there to negotiate the treaty that ended the war. He had his principles to establish what he called making democracy safe. He would have relatively lenient to Germany. This author says he caught the virus while negotiations were underway. It is a fact that he was sick for several days. The assertion is that his sickness led him to give way to French desire for more stringent penalties against Germany which included Germany assuming all blame for the conflict. That leads to saying that the harsher penalties provided fodder for Hitler to gain power in Germany and hence WW II. If this is true, then it is surely the longest acting most important consequence of the great flu outbreak of 1918-19.
I am struck by how the author highlights the city of Philadelphia as a city hard city by the influenza. The city was devastated. One reason was poor municipal leadership. On the other hand, San Francisco did pretty well due largely to good leadership at the top.
One difference between THEN and NOW is that we are told today that COVID-19 strikes the most vulnerable first, those elderly and/or those with certain preexisting conditions. The 1918 pandemic was different.
The book reminds the reader that throughout history more soldiers died from disease than battle wounds. P. 135
Like today the 1918-19 pathogen was airborne. Breathing it in would cause the disease. P. 256
Pandemics come in waves. The first wave came in the spring of 1918. The second wave, much more dangerous, came in the fall. October, not April, was the cruelest month. P. 313
"There was real terror afoot in 1918, real terror. The randomness of death brought that terror home. And so did the fact that the healthiest and strongest seemed the most vulnerable." P. 460
The author's biggest conclusion:
"For if there is a single dominant lesson from 1918, it's that governments need to tell the truth in a crisis. Risk communication implies managing the truth. You don't manage the truth. You tell the truth." P. 460
"So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate all within a society. Society cannot function is it is every man for himself. By definition, civilization cannot survive that." P. 461
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