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| Southern Bell operators masking up at work in Jax Florida State Archives/Florida Memory |
By Jane Feehan
A look back at the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed more than 50 million throughout the world, offers some similarities to and differences from our current situation with the COVID-19 contagion.
World War I security fears tamped down official reporting on influenza across the globe—except in Spain where newspapers regularly reported on its ravages. Thus, generations have referred to it as the “Spanish” flu. Recent epidemiology points to strong evidence the 1918 disease originated in rural western Kansas. A resident, an infected soldier, brought the virus to Fort Riley, KS (Camp Funston) where it spread to others sent to crowded U.S. military installations across the nation. Most wound up in the trenches and barracks of Europe, quickly fueling a pandemic (The Great Influenza, John M. Barry of Tulane University).
What follows is both Florida-specific and national in scope and detail.
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| Getting ready for school 1918 Florida State Archives |
Just after the 15-month influenza pandemic, the U.S. Census recorded about 865,000 Florida residents with Miami at 29,571 and Fort Lauderdale a mere 2,257 (Broward County population then 5,135). Statewide, about 39,000 influenza cases were reported with 3,100 deaths. Jacksonville, with a population of about 91,000, was hardest hit by the influenza. Record keeping then was sketchy, especially in rural areas such as Fort Lauderdale where death notices citing influenza peppered the obituaries until the end of 1919.
Enterprising businessmen parading as medical types advertised nonsensical cures, fraudulent preventatives and useless palliatives to cope with the influenza: Calomel tablets (with quinine) to counter a lazy liver and keep kidneys working; a bottle of Hyomei oil to inhale through a tube every 30 minutes; Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic (quinine) to “purify the blood;” Eucapine Salve (eucalyptus) to breath easier, and Wilson’s Giv-Eze Tablets, “also dispensed at soda fountains,” to ward off both colds and influenza. (None of the above are recommended now or was by the medical establishment then.)
No one, including scientists, could figure out the genesis of the sickness or what it actually was, bacteria or virus or both? The Miami News reported on a Ohio newspaper that suggested eating bacon was the cause of influenza. Newspapers in Florida and around the country claimed the influenza pandemic was the same as the “old-fashioned grippe” or influenza that struck the nation in 1889, except this version was of the “pulmonary type.”
Authentic medical advice published by the Dade County Medical Society, similar to that of today, included warnings to stay away from “moving picture theatres,” to avoid crowds because it was a “crowd disease,” to keep a safe distance from others, not to sneeze or cough into someone’s face, to stay in bed for a week after recovering from influenza ... all similar to today's messaging.
Astoundingly, given today’s warnings, the medical society did not suggest washing hands—nor did Surgeon General of the United States Rupert Blue, who served in that role 1912-1920. He did call for the closing of churches, schools, and public institutions (some did, but not for long). A less-read hand-washing directive came from the U.S. Army; another came from the New York City Commissioner of Health Dr. Royal Copeland to wash hands and face when returning home. Dr. Ralph N. Greene, Florida’s state health officer advised not to touch the face, stay in open air as much as possible and last, to wash hands before eating. A northern newspaper suggested washing hands before dinner (what, no washing hands before the pandemic?).
The Miami Metropolis published pointers to avoid the influenza in October 1918: adhere to the three “C’s” - Clean mouth, Clean skin, Clean clothes. Number eight on their list was to wash hands (again, handwashing seemed an afterthought in most directives). Their final pointer: don’t think and talk grippe all the time, forget it, “do not yield to panic.”
Frequently mentioned during the 1918-1920 pandemic: more soldiers died from influenza than in battle. Throughout history and until recent conflicts, this has been the case; disease had always claimed more soldiers’ lives than battle. Another interesting tidbit … Spanish flu was blamed for tangential diseases and aftereffects such as sleeping sickness, heart attacks and other strange maladies. Surgeon General Blue reported relapses of influenza. Sound familiar?
Were masks an issue? Yes, same as today. Business and school closings? Yes, but unlike today, briefly and across fewer establishments (except in St. Louis near the end of the pandemic). One short-lived Miami directive closed businesses at 4 p.m. The University of Miami with its 905 students remained open.
Florida news accounts about the 1918-1919 influenza event claimed cases were milder here than in other states. Some reported fewer cases and deaths in the Sunshine State than any other. That’s hard to prove; reporting was imprecise, or in some areas, nonexistent.
Even today’s reporting differs by sets of variables, methodologies and consistency.
Do we record deaths from or with COVID-19? How do we distinguish from the usual death occurrences? Some are taking an average yearly number of deaths and subtracting that from current assumed COVID deaths. Scientific? And about the crazy 2020-2021 models. Many have proven abysmally wrong.
How far have we come in the 100 plus years since the "great influenza"? The 1918 event ended without a vaccine. It took decades to develop a vaccine, one that rarely exceeds 50 percent efficacy. No world leader or politician can take credit for having ended the great influenza.
For a timeline of the 1918-1919 pandemic, see Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/pandemic-timeline-1918.htm
Sources:
Barry John M. The Great Influenza. Penguin Books, New York, New York (2004, 2005, 2009, 2018).
Miami News, Oct. 4, 1918
Miami News, Oct. 5, 1918
Miami Metropolis, Oct. 11, 1918
Miami Herald, Oct. 13, 1918
Miami News, Oct. 16, 1918
Miami News, Oct. 24, 1919
Miami Herald, Jan. 14, 1919
Miami Herald, Feb. 16, 1919
Miami Herald, Jan. 23, 1919
Miami News, Nov. 1, 1919
Miami News, Nov. 5, 1919
Miami News, Dec. 1, 1919
Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 23, 2000
Sun-Sentinel, April 11, 2007
U.S. Public Health Service
National Library of Medicine
National Archives
Miamistudent.net
TAGS: Influenza pandemic in Florida 1918
