The Spanish Flu of 1918: the history of a deadly pandemic and lessons for coronavirus
Summary
TLDRThe video script explores the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, comparing its origins, spread, and impact to the current COVID-19 crisis. It delves into the pandemic's origins, its unusually high mortality rate among young adults, and the global response that led to the creation of the World Health Organization. The script highlights lessons learned from the past, the importance of scientific understanding, and the emotional toll of pandemics, urging viewers to remember and learn from history.
Takeaways
- 🌏 The 2020 global coronavirus pandemic is a significant historical event, causing widespread disruption and loss of life, with parallels to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
- 🔬 The origins of the Spanish flu are disputed, but it is believed to have started in the United States or Europe during World War I, spreading rapidly among soldiers and civilians.
- 🏥 The Spanish flu was particularly deadly, with symptoms including hemorrhaging in the lungs and respiratory failure, leading to a high mortality rate among healthy adults.
- 📈 The pandemic had a significant impact on the global economy and society, with cities that implemented strict interventions seeing better economic recovery post-pandemic.
- 🌐 The Spanish flu pandemic led to the creation of global health agencies and the World Health Organization, emphasizing the need for international coordination in health crises.
- 📊 Differences in response strategies to the Spanish flu, such as quarantine measures and public health campaigns, resulted in varying death rates and outcomes across different regions.
- 💉 The scientific understanding of viruses and epidemiology advanced significantly after the Spanish flu, leading to better preparedness for future pandemics.
- 🚫 Misinformation and fake news were prevalent during the Spanish flu, similar to the current situation with the coronavirus, highlighting the importance of accurate information dissemination.
- 📚 The emotional and psychological toll of the pandemics is profound, affecting individuals and communities deeply, with long-lasting impacts on mental health and societal well-being.
- 🔄 The blame game and scapegoating seen during the Spanish flu, such as labeling it the 'Spanish flu' despite its origins being elsewhere, is mirrored in the current pandemic with similar attributions.
- 🚨 Lessons from the Spanish flu pandemic, including the importance of early action, scientific research, and international cooperation, are crucial for shaping the response to the current and future pandemics.
Q & A
What is the significance of the 2020 global coronavirus pandemic in relation to history?
-The 2020 global coronavirus pandemic is a defining moment in history that has brought 21st-century life to a standstill, causing widespread pain, suffering, and death, and is similar in impact to the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic.
What is the estimated death toll range for the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic?
-The global death toll for the Spanish flu pandemic is disputed and ranges from 17 million to 50 million, and in some estimates, even up to 100 million deaths worldwide.
Why is the 1918-1920 pandemic commonly referred to as the Spanish flu?
-The pandemic is called the Spanish flu because Spain, a neutral country during World War I with no press censorship, was one of the first to report on the outbreak openly, leading to the misconception that it originated there.
How did the Spanish flu spread so rapidly during World War I?
-The Spanish flu spread rapidly due to the movement of soldiers in cramped and overcrowded conditions on troop ships, trains, and in prisoner-of-war camps, which were ideal for the virus to propagate.
What were the unusual symptoms of the Spanish flu compared to typical flu?
-Unlike typical flu symptoms, the Spanish flu caused hemorrhaging in the lungs and edema, leading to people effectively drowning in their own bodily fluids.
How did the Spanish flu pandemic affect different age groups compared to the coronavirus pandemic?
-The Spanish flu was unique in that it killed a large number of healthy adults between 18 and 44 years old, whereas the coronavirus pandemic has primarily affected elderly people with greater risk of complications.
What were the differences in the response to the Spanish flu in different cities in the United States?
-Cities like Milwaukee implemented early social distancing measures and closed public spaces, which resulted in a lower death rate compared to Philadelphia, which was slower to act and held a large gathering that led to a significant outbreak.
How did the aftermath of the Spanish flu pandemic influence the scientific and global health community?
-The Spanish flu led to a greater focus on virology and epidemiology, and the creation of global health agencies, with the World Health Organization being a descendant of those early efforts to coordinate international responses to health crises.
What economic insights were drawn from the 2020 paper by researchers at the Federal Reserve and MIT regarding the Spanish flu?
-The paper found that US cities which implemented strict interventions for longer periods during the Spanish flu pandemic also experienced better economic recovery, as fewer deaths meant more people were available to return to work after lockdowns ended.
What similarities exist between the public response to the Spanish flu and the coronavirus pandemic?
-Both pandemics have seen a 'blame game' where people look to assign responsibility for the outbreak, as well as the spread of misinformation and fake news, which has led to harmful consequences in both instances.
How might the emotional toll of the coronavirus pandemic compare to that of the Spanish flu?
-Like the Spanish flu, the coronavirus pandemic will have a profound psychological effect on individuals and communities, with lasting impacts on those who have lost loved ones, jobs, or have been otherwise affected by the crisis.
Outlines
😷 The Spanish Flu and Its Impact on the World
This paragraph discusses the 2020 coronavirus pandemic as a defining moment in history, drawing parallels to the 1918-1920 Spanish flu. It explains that the Spanish flu is believed to have infected a significant portion of the global population and resulted in a disputed death toll ranging from 17 million to 100 million. The origins of the Spanish flu are disputed, but it is commonly thought to have started in the United States and spread to Europe during World War I. The flu was named 'Spanish' due to Spain's lack of wartime press censorship, which allowed news of the outbreak to spread. The paragraph also highlights the differences in symptoms and mortality patterns between the Spanish flu and the coronavirus, noting that the former was particularly deadly to young adults. It emphasizes the lack of medical interventions at the time and contrasts this with today's advanced treatments and preventative measures.
🛑 Response and Recovery from the Spanish Flu
This paragraph delves into the response to the Spanish flu, detailing the rapid spread of the virus in crowded wartime conditions and the severe symptoms that led to high mortality rates. It contrasts the responses of different cities, such as Milwaukee and Philadelphia, to illustrate the effectiveness of early and strict interventions in controlling the spread of the disease. The paragraph also discusses the economic implications of the pandemic, suggesting that cities with more effective interventions experienced better economic recoveries. It further explores the long-term effects of the Spanish flu on scientific understanding and global health infrastructure, leading to the development of virology and epidemiology as fields of study and the establishment of the World Health Organization. The paragraph concludes by drawing a parallel between the blame and misinformation surrounding both the Spanish flu and the current coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the human tendency to seek scapegoats and the dangers of fake news.
🌏 Lessons from the Spanish Flu for Today's Pandemic
The final paragraph reflects on the profound impact of both the Spanish flu and the current coronavirus pandemic on individuals and society as a whole. It emphasizes the importance of learning from history and remembering the lessons and lives lost. The paragraph also touches on the emotional toll of the pandemics, the challenges faced by healthcare workers, and the collective psychological effects on the population. It concludes by urging the retention of these lessons to better prepare for and respond to future pandemics, underscoring the significance of historical memory and collective resilience in the face of global crises.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Pandemic
💡Spanish flu
💡Influenza
💡Censorship
💡Quarantine
💡Ventilators
💡Epidemiology
💡World Health Organization (WHO)
💡Misinformation
💡Blame Game
💡Preparedness
Highlights
The 2020 global coronavirus pandemic is a defining moment in history, causing widespread pain, suffering, and death.
Scenes in hospitals during the 2020 pandemic are reminiscent of those from the 1918-1920 Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu infected between a quarter and a third of the world's population, with a disputed death toll ranging from 17 million to 100 million.
There are theories that the Spanish flu originated either in the United States or from the trenches of the Western Front during World War I.
The term 'Spanish flu' arose because Spain, a neutral country during World War I, did not censor news about the outbreak.
A second, more deadly wave of the Spanish flu struck in August 1918, spreading globally during World War I.
Symptoms of the Spanish flu included severe respiratory issues, with people often dying from their lungs filling with fluid.
Unlike COVID-19, the Spanish flu primarily killed healthy adults between 18 and 44 years old.
Lack of pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines made the Spanish flu particularly deadly.
Responses to the Spanish flu varied significantly, with places like American Samoa implementing strict quarantines to avoid deaths.
Milwaukee's early social distancing measures resulted in a significantly lower death rate compared to cities like Philadelphia.
The Spanish flu spurred advancements in virology and epidemiology, leading to better pandemic preparedness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was established as a response to the global need for coordinated health efforts.
The emotional and psychological toll of pandemics, like the Spanish flu and COVID-19, has long-lasting impacts on individuals and societies.
Misinformation and fake remedies during pandemics are not new phenomena, with parallels seen in both the Spanish flu and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Transcripts
2020 global coronavirus pandemic is a
defining moment in history
grinding 21st century life to a
standstill and causing pain suffering
and death to thousands these are the
scenes in hospitals around the world and
yet as unfamiliar as all this is to us
today's images are similar to these this
was a hundred years ago during the 1918
to 1920 Spanish flu
that deadly influenza is thought to have
infected between a quarter and a third
of the world's population at the time
and the global death toll is still
disputed to this day with it ranging
from 17 million dead to 50 million to
even a hundred million deaths worldwide
so what exactly was the Spanish flu and
why was it so deadly and how did that
pandemic change the world a hundred
years ago and can it tell us anything
about our response to coronavirus today
where did the Spanish flu come from the
origins of this particularly deadly
strain of the flu is disputed the common
theory is that it began in the United
States in March 1918 among soldiers at
Fort Riley in Kansas those men were
preparing for deployment to the Western
Front
thus transporting the flu from North
America to Europe during World War one
the other theory is that it came
directly from the trenches on the
Western Front when soldiers on both
sides began suffering from a novel type
of influenza either way it spread
quickly among soldiers in Europe and
eventually further afield but wise
Spanish Bleu given that whatever its
origins it did not start in Spain while
countries fighting in the war had strict
censorship of the press and news of a
lethal flu was suppressed because it
might affect a nations morale but when
the flu spread to Spain well they were a
neutral country during the war and there
was no press censorship around the flu
outbreak in fact authorities there
thought they were the only European
nation battling dis influenza
hence it became known as the Spanish flu
a second more deadly wave struck in
August 1918 hitting the ports for
Freetown in Sierra Leone Brest in France
and Boston in the United States and it
then spread across the world on an
unprecedented scale during World War one
now they are on the move
in cramped overcrowded conditions which
is an absolute dream for infinite
influenza virus to spread and so on
those overcrowded troop ships on troop
trains in prisoner-of-war camps it
spreads very rapidly indeed but what
were the symptoms it would initially be
like normal fluke shortness of breath
sore muscles high fever headaches and
then it would progress they would begin
to have hemorrhaging in their lungs an
edema in the lungs that their lungs
would begin to fill with their own
bodily fluids which would mean that
literally people would be kind of
drowning in their own fluids the Spanish
flu was different to today's corona
virus for example it killed a large
number of healthy adults between 18 and
44 years old that seems to follow a very
different pattern to the corona virus
outbreak today where elderly people are
at greater risk of complications from
the disease and this all took place in
the aftermath of a world ravaged by
global war a particularly devastating
time for a pandemic to strike and
remember back then they had no
pharmaceutical interventions and had not
even begun any notion of a vaccine given
they didn't even know it was a virus
today we are so much more advanced and
the help of ventilators and other
treatments are helping us to treat
people and save countless lives much of
the spread of the Spanish flu was down
to the movement of people after the war
and we can see differences in how
countries were affected by the way they
dealt with arriving ships take the
example of two islands Western Samoa and
American Samoa wrist and Samoa after the
Pacific is affected by a New Zealand
ship it undergoes probably the worst
experience of Spanish flu around the
globe about 25% of the population of
West and Samoa died in the Spanish forty
miles to the east in American Samoa they
imposed a strict five-day quarantine for
all boats that had influenza they
reported no debts over in the United
States six hundred and seventy five
thousand people who died from the
Spanish but again there were differences
in some city
in Milwaukee in Wisconsin the death rate
was just under 300 per 100,000 people in
Philadelphia Pennsylvania it was more
than double what was the reason for this
disparity
well Milwaukee was ahead of the curve
guided by a health commissioner who very
early on launched a campaign of posters
and efforts calling on people to avoid
crowds and transport they did early
social distancing they closed saloons
and public gatherings they closed down
the schools and churches they asked
people to stay away from one another on
the other hand in Philadelphia they
didn't move as quickly and held a huge
liberty loan parade in late September
that prompted a huge outbreak suddenly
the health care system is completely
overwhelmed everything from nurses and
doctors all the way through to those who
could dig graves those who could could
build caskets are simply overwhelmed and
people are frankly unable to give to the
sick the dying and the dead the kind of
respect that they really deserved under
2020 paper from researchers at the
Federal Reserve and MIT found that those
US cities that had strict interventions
for longer also saw a better economic
recovery given that the Spanish flu
killed so many working age adults if a
city managed to limit the number of
deaths the more people there were to go
back to work
once the lockdowns ended but what about
after the peak of the pandemic well in
Australia the country managed to avoid
the second wave of the Spanish flu but
they did not avoid it completely and
they put in place
maritime quarantine in the in the latter
half of 1918 and managed to keep out the
most vicious wave of the pandemic but
unfortunately they lifted that
quarantine too early in 1919 and left
let in the third wave and 12,000
Australia has died in that way in the
longer term doctors and scientists
realized that they had got the flu very
wrong and needed to expand their
knowledge remember back then many
thought influenza was caused by bacteria
rather than it being caused by a virus
after 1918 there was more of a focus
from the scientific community to be
better prepared in the future starting
from the 1920s is that virology takes
off as a field
viruses also epidemiology which is the
study of patterns and causes an effect
and given that many countries struggle
to cope with the pandemic there was also
a desire to have a better global
response and thus 1918 began a process
which sought the creation of the World
Health Organization we created the first
global health agencies after that
pandemic because we understood the need
to coordinate an international response
the w-h-o is the descendant of that and
unfortunately we've moved away from the
understanding of the necessity of that
kind of agency
it's very easy with the benefit of
hindsight to say what worked and what
didn't work during the Spanish flu and
say that what work then might be able to
work now as I speak we cannot be a
hundred percent sure what is and what is
not working for example many are now
questioning whether we can rely on the
data out of China we're still assessing
evaluating and understanding the exact
nature of the coronavirus and what works
to stop its spread but there are some
other similarities with the Spanish flu
starting with the name the fact that it
was and still is labeled the Spanish
room shows how people and countries
often look to blame someone for such an
outbreak that blame game is being
repeated again today why do you keep
calling this the Chinese virus there are
reports of dozens of incidents and by
bias against Chinese Americans in this
country why are you keep using this it's
not racist at all no it comes from China
in the face of the threat that an
epidemic poses to life an almost natural
human responses to say who is to blame
who is responsible it's him and that
also feeds off misinformation or fake
news something that was prevalent 100
years ago and is happening now back then
there was fake news and fake remedies
the idea that alcohol would protect you
and special Alexia's for sold to people
who thought they would be safe so to
today fake remedies are being offered as
well as conspiracies in the UK arson
attacks have taken place on telephone
masts because people believe the
completely full theory that the new 5g
network is spreading coronavirus large
numbers of people who don't pay to get
their news get it from social media
sites or other I'm not necessarily
getting good sources of information so I
think that's an old problem that has a
very modern twist on it
furthermore many public health experts
have warned us for years that we have
not been preparing for a pandemic
even though recent examples of SARS or
MERS have shown that outbreaks can
happen again people have been urging us
in our local communities to think
carefully about how we will be ready for
the next big emergency
many of us have not taken them seriously
enough perhaps this outbreak may change
how countries respond to pandemics in
the future because let's not forget one
key similarity between the Spanish flu
and today the emotional toll this will
happen a man said to me I was 10 in 1918
when my mother died this was in 1998 so
he's a man well into his ages I was 10
when my mother died in 1980 and I have
missed her ever since how do you say
that that's not a life changing
experience 2020 like a hundred years ago
will have a huge psychological effect
not just on those who have lost jobs who
are struggling for money or who are
living apart from their family but the
countless lives lost around the world of
the devastating stories of people not
being able to attend their loved ones
funeral of the doctors and nurses that
have died trying to save lives just like
with the Spanish flu this is a profound
moment in history but we cannot let it
simply pass into history books we must
remember what we have learnt and
remember those we have lost
[Music]
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