History Repeating itself Spanish Flu

Please please read this!
This is long, but worth reading.
If you didn't know it you'd think this was written about what is happening right now.

I've highlighted key parts below.


www.history.com...

the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low.

However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms

doctors and scientists were unsure what caused it or how to treat it. Complicating matters was the fact that World War I had left parts of America with a shortage of physicians and other health workers. And of the available medical personnel in the U.S., many came down with the flu themselves.

Additionally, hospitals in some areas were so overloaded with flu patients that schools, private homes and other buildings had to be converted into makeshift hospitals, some of which were staffed by medical students.

With pressure to appear patriotic at wartime and with a censored media downplaying the disease’s spread, many made tragic decisions.

St. Louis, Missouri, was different: Schools and movie theaters closed and public gatherings were banned. Consequently, the peak mortality rate in St. Louis was just one-eighth of Philadelphia’s death rate during the peak of the pandemic.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Why not also highlight this little gem of info at the end of your quoted text?

St. Louis, Missouri, was different: Schools and movie theaters closed and public gatherings were banned. Consequently, the peak mortality rate in St. Louis was just one-eighth of Philadelphia’s death rate during the peak of the pandemic

Kinda proves that isolation and what is now deemed "social distancing" worked back then to curb the spread and drastically reduce the death rate of those infected.

Imagine that?

a reply to: Krakatoa

Kinda proves that isolation and what is now deemed "social distancing" worked back then to curb the spread and drastically reduce the death rate of those infected.

Imagine that?

That's exactly what I'm trying to say.

I highlighted what I did because so many people/states/towns/stores still don't believe it, which is incredulous to me.

I

They’re really not comparable:

Two very different diseases

Although the two diseases are both respiratory infections with common symptoms such as a runny nose and fever, they belong to different families of viruses. “Pneumonia and pleurisy caused a lot of death in 1918; people were suffocated – they felt like they were drowning,” said Rasmussen. “With regard to the coronavirus, France’s director general for health Jérôme Salomon emphasised how different it is from the influenza virus; the clinical profile, the severity, the biological signs are all different.”

The coronavirus is also more threatening to very different age groups from those who were hit hardest by the Spanish flu. The former affects the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions most severely. By contrast, the latter was most deadly for young adults – a rare phenomenon that continues to intrigue epidemiologists.

amp.france24.com...

Whilst Covid19 is not to be underestimated, it’s a long way off being as deadly as Spanish Flu currently.

a reply to: Krakatoa

Yup... in philly they held a parade and that's how it spread like wildfire. If you're a little late to cut off the ties of its origins social distancing is the best way to fight it.
Taiwan and s korea halted all travel with china early on so they didnt really to take that measure.

a reply to: 0010110011101

Whilst Covid19 is not to be underestimated, it’s a long way off being as deadly as Spanish Flu currently.

We can assume, but since we are just now in the midst of the pandemic, we really can't compare until after.

originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: Krakatoa

Yup... in philly they held a parade and that's how it spread like wildfire. If you're a little late to cut off the ties of its origins social distancing is the best way to fight it.
Taiwan and s korea halted all travel with china early on so they didnt really to take that measure.

Two states are in denial....

covidactnow.org...

Like I said:

many made tragic decisions.

Spanish Flu had a short shelf life. After the second wave it fell off a cliff. They don't really know why but think because it's makeup broke down and was not nearly as deadly. I'm not even so sure it sticking around some is a bad thing. People are dying but read today the cartels can't get what they need from China to make illegal drugs. Their production by estimates is being cut by 80%.

If that is true, longer it goes the weaker cartels, human trafficking, drugs abuse and gun violence get everyday. Start adding up deaths associated with those and it starts to get interesting. Maybe the virus is actually a cure, or at least has the ability to really dismantle some problems for a while.

How did St. Louis vs. Philadelphia fare on wave two? Is the question I I have. I've seen it said that St Louis was hut worse on wave two than Philly because there weren't as many people who were immune. I haven't confirmed that yet, but if so it's a major concern for this fall.

Ok according to the OP link St Louis and Philly examples are the second wave. Wasn't there a third wave as well before it petered out in summer of 1919? Did St. Louis do better out just spread the numbers over two calendar years?

originally posted by: jefwane
How did St. Louis vs. Philadelphia fare on wave two? Is the question I I have. I've seen it said that St Louis was hut worse on wave two than Philly because there weren't as many people who were immune. I haven't confirmed that yet, but if so it's a major concern for this fall.

www.stltoday.com... 5f31-a706-786785692bb5.html

When a second wave of flu hit the U.S. the next fall, St. Louis had the advantage of planning for disaster as East Coast cities were struck first. By late September, Jefferson Barracks went under quarantine as the first soldiers came down with the flu. In early October, city health commissioner Dr. Max C. Starkloff ordered the closure of schools, movie theaters, saloons, sporting events and other public gathering spots. Churches were told to suspend Sunday services. At the time, with nearly 800,000 residents, St. Louis was among the top 10 largest American cities.

Eh, I really don't think it's that much of a comparison slam dunk to try to bolster a POV with something that impacted an era with questionable sanitation & pollution, rudimentary basic DIY medical understanding, and common malnutriton. In some ways, they were hardier than we are, but in many others, the stances on things were primitive & poorly understood or not understood at all, at best. I doubt the Spanish Flu would be nearly as much as issue today as it was back then.

originally posted by: 0010110011101
They’re really not comparable:

Two very different diseases

Although the two diseases are both respiratory infections with common symptoms such as a runny nose and fever, they belong to different families of viruses. “Pneumonia and pleurisy caused a lot of death in 1918; people were suffocated – they felt like they were drowning,” said Rasmussen. “With regard to the coronavirus, France’s director general for health Jérôme Salomon emphasised how different it is from the influenza virus; the clinical profile, the severity, the biological signs are all different.”

The coronavirus is also more threatening to very different age groups from those who were hit hardest by the Spanish flu. The former affects the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions most severely. By contrast, the latter was most deadly for young adults – a rare phenomenon that continues to intrigue epidemiologists.

amp.france24.com...

Whilst Covid19 is not to be underestimated, it’s a long way off being as deadly as Spanish Flu currently.

We have yet to see this part of history repeat itself . . .

a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year

CORVID19 could catch up this fall and be just as bad, if not worse.

a reply to: jefwane

Wasn't there a third wave as well before it petered out in summer of 1919?

yes, it was more lethal than the first but not as bad as the second, it is thought now that majority of the deaths resulted from what is known as a bacterial supper infection that caused severe pneumonia.

even though the 1918 outbreak had a high death rate, studies in the past 30 yrs or so say even though the strain was more deadlier than strains that had came before it, it was not much different than them.