{"id":2653,"date":"2020-07-08T12:06:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T16:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/?p=2653"},"modified":"2020-12-21T10:15:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T15:15:04","slug":"comparing-covid-19-and-the-1918-flu-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/comparing-covid-19-and-the-1918-flu-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparing COVID-19 and the 1918 Flu Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What can history teach us<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n

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By Greta Bolger
Current Contributor<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of us, unless we are students of history or infectious disease specialists, the 1918 flu pandemic has never seemed very relevant\u2014until now. In the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, many are looking back at 1918 to find out what lessons were learned, what mistakes were made, and how much difference 100 years of human progress has made in our approach to dealing with a deadly virus.

However, comparing the events of 1918 and 2020 presents a number of challenges.

The world of a century ago was different in myriad ways. Far less was known about infectious diseases. Microscopes of that time could not even detect viruses. Communication channels were far slower and much less seamless than they have become through globalization and the advent of the internet. Though international business and recreational travel were far less common in the early 20th century, World War I troop movement was a major factor in spreading the virus globally. And importantly, records from that time are not wholly reliable, both because of underreporting and lack of connectivity.

Nevertheless, a closer look at the similarities and differences between the 1918 pandemic and the story that is unfolding worldwide right now may provide some insight and guidance as we navigate this once-in-a-century calamity that has so profoundly impacted our lives\u2014even here, in our small, rural Benzie County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kansas Army Base to Europe and Beyond<\/strong>
We know with some certainty that COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China, and originated in bats; it is a SARS strain.

Meantime, although the 1918 flu was and still is widely referred to as the \u201cSpanish Flu,\u201d there is no clear consensus of where this H1N1 strain of the flu originated. Many signs point to Camp Funston, an Army Base in Fort Riley, Kansas, where, in March 1918, an outbreak sent as many as 500 soldiers to the hospital within a week.

The initial cases were relatively mild and resolved fairly quickly, and the recovered troops were shipped out with their fellow soldiers and hundreds of thousands of others to the front in Europe. It did not take long for the disease to spread from the U.S. military to the civilian population of Europe, and then around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wartime Priorities Impact Response<\/strong>
Throughout the spring and summer, the 1918 flu continued to spread and mutate globally, becoming increasingly lethal. This period is known as the \u201cFirst Wave,\u201d which took between 3 and 5 million lives worldwide.

During this period, the extensive resources committed to the war effort were not available to help battle the virus. Large numbers of nurses were deployed overseas and at military bases in the United States, creating a shortage of medical workers to tend the sick. In addition, treatments were mostly limited to comfort care, as no effective medicines or vaccines were available.

Meanwhile, manufacturing plants continued operating at full steam to provide essential goods and equipment to the military, keeping thousands of workers on the job. And because attention was focused on the war and not on public health, very few protocols were in place to stop the spread of the virus.

Moreover, the fundamental nature of the virus was not well understood, even by medical professionals\u2014for instance, doctors making house calls to private homes increased the potential of transmitting the virus from house to house. Scientists spent precious time and effort trying to find the bacteria that was responsible for the deadly flu, when it was actually a virus. Months went by. Then came the Second Wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Wave Changes Everything<\/strong>
The Second Wave of the 1918 flu pandemic began in the early fall of that year, culminating in an estimated 30 to 50 million deaths worldwide\u2014more than the total of all military and civilian deaths caused by World War I.

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control<\/a>, an estimated 195,000 deaths from the virus occurred in October 1918 alone. The shortage of professional nurses deployed with the military\u2014coupled with the unwillingness to use trained African-American nurses\u2014led to a call by the Red Cross for volunteers to serve in an ad hoc nursing capacity. It was during this time that strict quarantine rules and public safety protocols began to be put in place in many cities around the country, including masks, school and church closures, and vigorous public education programs.

One of the most tragic chapters during the Second Wave occurred in Philadelphia, where a giant parade designed to support the war effort through the sale of Liberty Loan war bonds was held on September 28, 1918, attracting a crowd of 200,000. Within 72 hours, every bed in Philadelphia\u2019s 31 hospitals was full. In the week ending October 5, a total of 2,600 had died; a week later, the death toll rose to 4,500. A virtual shutdown of the city on October 3 did little to allay the skyrocketing casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Was Happening in Benzie County?<\/strong>
Sources for the specifics of how Benzie County experienced the 1918 flu pandemic are limited and are available primarily from the archives of the Benzie Banner<\/em>, predecessor to the Benzie County Record Patriot<\/em>. Since the local paper was a weekly then (as it is now) and a war was on, only a few facts can be gleaned from the late 1918 and early 1919 issues. According to Jane Purkis, volunteer curator at the Benzie Area Historical Museum, these were the sole mentions in the weekly during the height of the pandemic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n