
A Key Lesson from the 1918 Flu Pandemic? 'Tell the Truth,' One Historian Says - Aloha
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/12/20/1918-flu-pandemic
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tritium
The 2014 ebola outbreak is, I think, really, the closest we’ve come to this
kind of true fear ( _since 1918_ ) of a fast-acting deadly illness, capable of
killing within days, and frighteningly accidentally infectious.

I can’t speak to much of anything happening outside the U.S. prior to 1970,
but if I’ve ever experienced anything that seems like a reasonable pairing
with the 1918 pandemic, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.

I remember the news of it emerging in just a few weeks, and hearing _level-
headed people_ commenting that this thing seemed to be turning into “quite a
thing” and when reasonable people raise an eyebrow, it really magnifies the
gravity of an anxiety that just immerses you in this sort of fatiguing
alertness, to say the least.

You’re excited, but at a time when there’s no urgency to act, and you wonder
if that might be your last error: failing to recognize what that all-important
warning sign was to be, or was supposed to have been. Is it time to panic yet?
How will I know if it is?

The flu is just this typical sort of seasonal thing, for as long as I’ve been
alive. But I imagine what the ebola outbreak felt like, is a stone’s throw
from what the 1918 pandemic really became in the sense of a social atmosphere
worthy of the fear it produced.

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rwallace
Ebola didn't come close, but SARS, in 2002, did; it was similar in all ways to
the 1918 flu, including lethality: high single-digit percentage of the
population in affected areas had it spread unchecked. Fortunately, the threat
was recognized and the disease was stopped with an aggressive campaign of
contact tracing and quarantine, or the death toll would have been several
hundred million. The universe is a far more hostile place than we remember in
the course of an average day.

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pipio21
The interesting thing is that it was called the Spanish flu because Spain was
neutral in the war and there were not censorship.

There has been several studies that has followed the flu to their origins by
wax samples in Hospitals, and now it is very clear that it was the war
conditions what made it so powerful: The overcrowding and bad hygienic state
of barracks,trenches and bad feeding of the fighting population, made
spreading of the flu exponential.

Now it is international traveling what could spread illnesses, in the last two
weeks I have traveled over 4 different Continents. Megacities like Shanghai
with 30 million people provide the overcrowding, but people are stronger and
better feed than in the war.

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lsv1
I read a great book which covers the Spanish Flu called The Great Influenza
([https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-
Barry/dp/...](https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Influenza-Revised-John-
Barry/dp/0143036491)) by John M. Barry.

The book does a great job of expressing the history of medicine leading up to
the 1918 Spanish Flu.

But above all the book goes into detailed recollection on the arrogance of
leadership in the face of this deadly disease. From politicians listing it as
merely a regular flu, to military generals choosing not to quarantine
troops... leading to massive casualties and the spread of the disease. All
leading up to a realization of severity, when proper measures are taken.

I believe a newer print also has a note about Swine Flu, my copy is fairly old
and does not include this.

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nonbel
>"Everyone could see that this was a lethal pandemic. Some of the symptoms
were horrific — bleeding not only from your nose and mouth but from your eyes
and ears. And yet the authorities were saying, 'This is just ordinary
influenza.'"

Sounds like more info consistent with the aspirin poisoning theory:
[https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441](https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441)

I think in general people really underestimate the damage that poorly
understood medical interventions can do.

