A nurse during the 1918 pandemic
Daniel Pinna Journal of the American Medical Association, 1918: "The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease." (12/28/1918)
Seattle policemen
Daniel Pinna Police wore masks given to them by the Red Cross - civilians were encouraged to stay off the streets and at home.
The flu ward at Walter Reed Hospital
AncientFaces "Since noon today our camp has been under quarantine to prevent an epidemic of Spanish influenza. We have had no cases thus far but it is the intention of the medical officers to prevent any case of the disease from making an appearance. All the men who have even slight colds have been put into separate barrack which, of course, were immediately christened 'the TB ward' by the rest of the company." - Letter home from a soldier 9/1918. Things would get much worse.
Typing in a mask
Daniel Pinna People were advised to wear masks everywhere - at work and even at home.
Red Cross Ambulance
Kathy Pinna St. Louis flu victim, 1918.
In Seattle, passengers weren't allowed to board a streetcar without a mask
Daniel Pinna Many complied with containment measures (such as mask wearing), while others thought that the measures were useless and flaunted them.
A flu ward in Connecticut, 1918
Kathy Pinna Getting dressed for school
Kathy Pinna A popular song among school children in 1918 - 1919 was: I had a little bird, it's name was Enza . . . I opened up the window and in flew Enza.
1918 New York City
Kathy Pinna Even street cleaners wore masks.
Popular Science's flu mask
Kathy Pinna In 1919, Popular Science disagreed with laws that mandated the wearing of flu masks. This was a DIY suggestion - with a hole for a cigarette but (since it was illegal to exhale outside of the mask) you had to swallow the resulting smoke.
1919 San Francisco
Kathy Pinna Spraying the streets with water, washing them down, was tried - but it didn't help.
Lining up for food
Kathy Pinna Notice that the food preparers had masks - the children didn't. Many flu victims were adults, leaving children to fend for themselves.
Orphans, 1925
AncientFaces Some of the orphans left after the 1918 - 1919 flu epidemic.
Myrtle Margaret Hoy, 1904
Carol Clark At age 14, this darling girl was a victim of the flu, dying on October 24, 1918.
1918 Oakland, CA
Kathy Pinna A flu ward in 1918 Oakland - notice that the nurses are a blur but all of the flu victims are too ill to move.
Washington D.C.
Kathy Pinna The epidemic spread everywhere. This is an unknown victim in Washington DC - but President Wilson also contracted the flu in 1919 Paris while at the Peace Talks.
New Zealand's public "Inhalation Chamber"
Kathy Pinna In New Zealand, you lined up to get a throat spray to help you combat the flu.
"If I fail, he dies"
Kathy Pinna Worldwide, the Red Cross recruited workers to help with flu preparations and nursing. By the end of 1918, the flu had killed 57,000 American soldiers -- 4000 more than those killed in combat. Perhaps that is why the first vaccines developed were by the U.S. military in 1938.
Horlick's Malted Milk ad
Kathy Pinna Promoted during the flu epidemic as "very digestible and nutritious", Horlick's Malted Milk was "endorsed by physicians everywhere" - according to the ad!
Medical facilities getting ready for the spread of the flu
Kathy Pinna It must have seemed to those who were living through it that this epidemic would last forever.
While the existence of viruses was first discovered in 1892, it wasn't until the 1930s (and the development of the electron microscope) that a virus was first seen. So in 1918, medicine didn't know how to cope with the virus which caused the "Spanish Flu". Science and medicine have developed in the past 100 years but human behavior has not - in 1918, people "got tired of wearing masks" and didn't want to stay home, prolonging the pandemic and causing more human devastation.
Update 5/3/2023: The World Health Organization Coronavirus Covid-19 dashboard estimates that there have been 6,921,614 deaths worldwide related to COVID-19.
Update: 1/25/2021 As of January 25 2021 there had been 2,124,193 deaths worldwide from the current COVID-19 pandemic; over 420,000 in the United States. 98,794,942 people in the world have been infected so far.
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