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Masks, the 1918 ("Spanish") flu epidemic, and COVID-19 parallels
Soldiers in Kansas were the patients zero:
- 4% death rate
- Came during World War I, so propagandists hid the news globally
- Misnamed Spanish
Went through American cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, NYC
- Inadequate public health
- Deliberate misinformations
- Widespread disobeyance of expert orders
Public Health issues:
- Director of public health is a gynecologist, not an epidemiologist,
appointed by the city's "political machine"
- Downplaying by officials
- Many other health maladies: rampant pneumonia from factory ash
- Parades and liberty bonds went on to support the war effort (Sedition)
- Gaps in healthcare parallel to today
Fake home remedies
- VapoRub as a cure for the virus
- Mandrake Pills, Honey, literal snake oil
Disobeyance of expert orders
- Mask slackers in cities with mask orders arrested for 5-10 days at
fines of $5-10.
- enforcers hated for it
- Masks called "muzzles", "dirt traps."
- The look was poor: "slabs of ravioli"
- Four+ layer thick gauze mask
- Monetary issue: people want to go back
- Masquerade as a constitutional issue
- Threats on public officials' lives
- Businesses wanted back and convinced people to go to bat
Actually still in existence---several relapses of generations of the flu
have happened, as recently as 2009
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