influenza

Does the Forgotten "Russian Flu" of the 1800s Give Clues How COVID Will Wind Down?

One lesson seems clear: there is no neat two-year timeline for pandemics, and viruses can circulate at a low profile for a long time. 

What Will We Remember of 2022?

by Tom Engelhardt

The response to the pandemic shows how the contemporary American urge toward nation un-building has returned home. 

With Omicron, We Need to Understand the 1918 Flu Pandemic More than Ever

by Christopher McKnight Nichols

"It may be that only now, in the winter of 2022, when Americans are exhausted with these mitigation methods, that a comparison to the 1918 pandemic is most apt."

US COVID Death Count Surpasses Estimates of 1918 Influenza

Historian Christopher McKnight Nichols notes "we have effective vaccines now.... the thing they most wanted in 1918, we've got. And for a lot of different reasons, we botched the response." 

There is No Precedent for the Politicization of the Pandemic

by Howard Markel

The COVID pandemic is going to be the future baseline case study for the social impact of pandemics, and is unfortunately likely to be a cautionary tale, says a medical historian. 

President Biden is a Very Different Pandemic President than Woodrow Wilson

by E. Thomas Ewing

A century ago, there was little expectation that a US President would have much to say about a public health emergency, even one of national scope. 

Penn State Professor Studying Stories of Spanish Flu Survivors

An accidental archival discovery led John Eicher to examine testimonials of European survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic; the subsequent COVID pandemic made his developing research suddenly relevant to the news. 

“All the World’s a Harem”: Perceptions of Masked Women during the 1918–1919 Flu Pandemic

by Jessica Brabble, Ariel Ludwig and E. Thomas Ewing

Contemporary sources show that women's mask-wearing practices during the 1918 flu pandemic could be viewed through a sexist lens, but women adapted the practice to claim independence and found examples in popular culture.

‘It is Getting Better Now’: Family Letters from the Deadly 1918 Flu Pandemic

Americans throughout the country are climbing attic stairs, descending into dusty basements and flipping through folders in old filing cabinets to seek words of everyday wisdom from ancestors who have suffered through something like this before.

‘The 1918 Flu Is Still With Us’: The Deadliest Pandemic Ever Is Still Causing Problems Today

Historians John Barry and Howard Markel are among the medical and social science experts who explain that the 1918 pandemic didn't "end" so much as endure in an era of recurrent viral pandemics. 

Boston Refused to Close Schools During the 1918 Flu. Then Children Began to Die

Boston's school health officials in 1918 denied that school attendance posed a heightened risk for children contracting or transmitting the flu. 

“The Mask Law will be Rigidly Enforced”: Ordinances, Arrests, and Celebrations during the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic

by Jessica Brabble, Ariel Ludwig, and E. Thomas Ewing

History teaches us that masking is a community effort in which individuals choose to act for the good of all, despite the inconvenience or discomfort. 

The Mask Slackers of 1918

In 1918 and 1919, as bars, saloons, restaurants, theaters and schools were closed, masks became a scapegoat, a symbol of government overreach, inspiring protests, petitions and defiant bare-face gatherings. All the while, thousands of Americans were dying in a deadly pandemic.

Pandemic Historian: Don't Rush Reopening. In 1918, Some States Ran Straight Into More Death.

by Dr. Howard Markel

Over a decade ago, I looked at state lockdown measures during the 1918 influenza pandemic. My takeaway: Longer is better than shorter.

America’s Response to Coronavirus Pandemic is ‘Incomprehensibly Incoherent,’ Says Historian Who Studied the 1918 Flu

According to historian John M. Barry, Americans have not learned their lesson since 1918.

Reopening too Soon: Lessons from the Deadly Second Wave of the 1918 Flu Pandemic

J. Alexander Navarro of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine has compiled archival records of the 1918 Influenza pandemic in 43 U.S. cities. The findings suggest staying closed helps prevent a deadly second wave of infections.  

She Posed as a Nurse During the 1918 Flu Pandemic and Went on a Crime Spree

Julia Lyons preyed on the sick and dying in Chicago.

Why Are There Almost No Memorials to the Flu of 1918?

Historians have accounted for how the influenza pandemic unfolded across the US and the world, but have been less successful accounting for why the disease seems to have been forgotten.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint?

by Rebecca Onion

According to scholar Elizabeth Outka, the tragedy haunts modernist literature between the lines.

The Second Battle of Gettysburg: Eisenhower’s Fight with the 1918 Flu Pandemic

by Jack M. Holl

Dwight Eisenhower played a pivotal role in protecting the troops under his command and the civilians living around Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from the 1918 influenza pandemic.