While ì pandemicî may be a new word for some people, pandemics have been around for a long time. The most devastating pandemic of the 20th century was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919, and there are definitely parallels between then and now.No one knows where the Spanish flu disease originated. During the winter of 1918, it was all over Europe. It was called the Spanish flu, according to the History Channel, because the Spanish media sources were the first to publicize the disease. It was brought to North America by Canadian and U.S. troops returning from World War I.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were an estimated 500 million deaths worldwide from the Spanish flu, or one-third of the world’s population at that time. The CDC stated there were 675,000 deaths in the U.S., or about 6.4% of the population at that time.It has been widely reported that COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have reached more than 300,000. Since the pandemic has not run its course, it is still to be determined what percentage of the current U. S. population of about 331 million will be fatalities related to the virus.As with COVID-19, there were high mortality rates among those 65 years of age and older with the Spanish flu. However, unlike COVID-19, the mortality rate for Spanish flu for those under 5 years of age and those 20 to 40 years of age was also high. More people died as a result of Spanish flu than were killed in World War I, according to the National Archives and Records Administration. The Spanish flu afflicted 25% of the U. S. population.While a vaccine for COVID-19 is currently being distributed; in 1918 and 1919, there was no search for vaccines or antibodies. No one knew that a virus caused the disease.The CDC noted that the Spanish flu and COVID-19 shared many of the same practices, including isolation, quarantine, use of disinfectants, limitation of public meetings, face masks and good personal hygiene. Photographs of the era showed people like office workers, policemen and letter carriers wearing masks. Public meetings were canceled. People were encouraged to walk to work instead of using public transit, and stores and factories were encouraged to stagger their opening and closing hours.ìLike COVID-19, no one had immunity; it was highly infectious and spread through coughing and sneezing,î said Berkeley Lovelace Jr., CNBC.com health care reporter, on Sept 28.Lovelace said several U. S. cities had mask mandates; and, like today, there were objections in some areas. He said both pandemics were highly politicized. In 1918, people called the masks ìdirt traps,î and some people punched holes in them in order to smoke cigars. A lawyer in San Francisco called a city mask ordinance ìabsolutely unconstitutionalî because it was not legally enacted.ìThe most important lesson was the inability of people to realize the severity of the disease,î wrote Furruhk Malik, a cardiovascular specialist in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a Nov. 29 guest column in the Tennessean. ìAccording to virologists, the present COVID-19 is more aggressive and lethal than the Spanish flu of 1918,î Furruhk said. Then, as now, Furruhk said people objected to social distancing and wearing face masks.In the case of the Spanish flu, there was no CDC or national public health agency. The pandemic was dealt with on local and state levels. Lovelace said the Spanish flu had a greater impact on the economy than COVID-19 because no one was able to work from home or work remotely.According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Spanish flu hit in three waves. But by the spring of 1918, it had run its course and fizzled out. Those exposed to the disease had either died or developed immunity.
