People Are Noticing How The Scenario Of The 1918 Spanish Flu Seems Eerily Similar To What We’re Currently Going Through
As much as we’d like to believe that our civilization has progressed unrecognizably during the last century, some things will probably always stay the same. These may include people who deny actual medicine and vaccines or think they know viruses and diseases better than doctors who have studied the subjects for decades.
History shows that during the 1918 pandemic (Spanish Flu), people were dealing with very similar problems we’re dealing with today. “I’ve been reading about the 1918 pandemic, and this paragraph stuck out,” one man shared on Twitter and attached an excerpt from a book. Reading it surely feels eerily familiar.
More info: Twitter
Jesus Jiménez—a reporter for Dallas Morning News—shared an excerpt from a book about the 1918 pandemic
Image credits: jesus_jimz
“It is impossible to quantify how many deaths the lies caused,” the excerpt from the book The Great Influenza reads. “It is impossible to quantify how many young men died because the army refused to follow the advice of its own surgeon general. But while those in authority were reassuring people that this was influenza, only influenza, nothing different from ordinary ‘la grippe,’ at least some people must have believed them, at least some people must have exposed themselves to the virus in ways they would not have otherwise, and at least some of these people must have died who would otherwise have lived. And fear really did kill people. It killed them because those who feared would not care for many of those who needed but could not find care, those who needed only hydration, food, and rest to survive.”
And the struggles seem eerily familiar to the ones we’re going through in the current pandemic
Image credits: jesus_jimz
People online were not super surprised that history is repeating itself. “Also, the surgeon general’s advice was to wear a mask and keep two arms’ length apart. Nothing much has changed,” someone commented on Imgur. “The difference now is that we have Facebook connecting the dumbest among us to create an enormous hive mind of impenetrable abject stupidity,” another user added.
The excerpt is from John M. Barry’s book The Great Influenza that was published in 2004
Image credits: amazon
Here’s what people online said
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People never learn. The same things happen over and over again, and nobody lives long enough to see it.
There is also the problem of people expecting a different outcome because this situation is 'different' somehow. For example, Napoleon invaded Russia in June of 1812 and retreated after the army began to freeze to death in December. Just over 100 years later, Hitler tried the same thing, invasion began in June, army began to freeze to death in December resulting in retreat. "Same s**t, different show"
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I've read many books about diseases in history - smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague, syphilis, typhus, and of course, the Spanish Flu. I knew that a pandemic was a real possibility - actually, it was a few years overdue, if you put any stock in statistics. This may have made it easier for me to accept the situation, but conferred no other advantage. History repeats. Whether we learn enough to change our collective behavior will be up to future historians to determine.
I don't know if it's only me, but I feel that, the orange man and his team should be accused of genocide! This lying thing is not ok...Wear a mask for cryin' out loud!
Maybe not genocide, but assisting in murder, and spread of disinformation.
Load More Replies...
Most sane people already knew about the similarities with the Spanish flu in June 2020. Only the idiots still have problems to this very day to understand what is going on.
I grew up hearing about the Spanish Flu. It affected my family, in that, if not for that pandemic I wouldn't be here. My grandfather (who was quite a bit older than my grandmother) had been married and had a son who died from the flu. Had they not died, he would not have married my grandmother and voila! No me. It's a weird feeling.
Load More Replies...
Yep. A classic example of human behavior in a pandemic, along with 1346-50, etc. The one thing that stops a pandemic? Is a change in human behavior.
I have read the book twice. It gave a dire warning that a pandemic could and would happen. If only the nation's leaders had listened.......
There is an interesting video on YouTube by Ask a Mortician about the outbreak of the plague in SF in 1900. The parallels to today’s pandemic are eerie: denial if the danger by politicians, racism, and discrediting of medical professionals. The video is definitely worth a watch (like all her uploads).
I watched it and I agree. It is definitely worth watching! Bonus: she's funny, too.
Load More Replies...
Have we learned nothing from history?? To quote one of my teachers, "You are the only thing stopping us from repeating history. YOU are the reason there won't be wars. Help the ones who don't see understand what were are doing. Don't repeat history."
This should be said at the beginning of every school day, everywhere, in every language. Let prayers and national anthems make way for this! Nationalism and religions create hostilities and war to enrich their leaders, they are the ones turning the eternal hamster wheel of human history.
Load More Replies... I have a letter from 1918. One page the young woman is talking about how sick people are and that there are deaths. Next page she talks of a dance coming up that weekend and there is no way they are going to make her stay home. Makes you wonder.
Heartless, cold, uncaring, unaware or really that unknowledgable?
Load More Replies... Both search engines and social media create opinion rabbit holes that it is easy to be fooled into, and, surprisingly enough, this often seems to happen to people who try to keep an open mind in general. It is often difficult to always separate mere opinion from real knowledge and once you have read an article selling toxic opinion, you will find more of its kind in your feed. This creates a problem for all of us because the human brain will accept as true anything that is repeated over and over. This is how cults function. So, please, listen to the scientists, but only to the relevant scientists. Is a professor of psychology (for example) a scientist? Yes, but they are not a virologist, in fact, they are not even a doctor, and no matter how strong an opinion they may have about the Covid pandemic - it is still only an opinion.
There is an interesting video on YouTube by Ask a Mortician about the outbreak of the plague in SF in 1900. The parallels to today’s pandemic are eerie: denial by politicians, racism, and discrediting of medical professionals. The video is definitely worth a watch (like all her uploads).
Read the book One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn, it’s about the 1918 pandemic. Of course, it’s a ghost story, but I relate a lot to what was going on back then
The Influenza plague of 1918. The bubonic plague of 1900 San Francisco. I feel it is a given. The initial reaction, by the ruling class, is to deny the danger to protect their business interests. (Yeah. The black death visited SF from 1900-04. Politician denial and inaction exasperated the pandemic for the entirety of their term in office. Lucky for us, the covid arrived in the final year of the former prez' term in office.)
The Common Reading program at Washington State University in 2007 was about the pandemic of 1918. Called Flue by Gina Kolata (she's an actual science writer)
people whine because they can't get their hairs cut... what do you expect? from such people?
My hair is now the longest it has been since I was a teenager, and it's a b***h to wash and brush. However, I can wait to have it cut. I can hardly wait to have it cut.
Load More Replies...
The spanish flu 1918 - 1920 killed tens of millions. At least we are not there and most likely we will never reach that. I am thankful for that.
I've had the same thought as SneakyBasket... it's natures way of controlling the population... maybe it's also Mother Earth's way of saying "Stop killing me!"
Nah, it's not half as romantic as that. Our planet could not care less. The human race reminds me more of green lice on a rose bush in May, overpowering it, multiplying, covering it, until either their unwilling host and/or they are all dead. "By weight, 60% of the mammals on earth are livestock, 36% are humans and only 4% are wild." https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time
Load More Replies...
The only thing we have learned from history is most people dont learn from history. The military isnt smarter than the President. They gave us all a vax last year that had coronavirus in it. Then they sent ships to sea where you literally sleep in racks three high and about a torso width apart. So many people came down with symptoms they had to take everyone off the ship and put them each in their own hotel rooms. Carries have over 5k on them. That is a lot of possible cases.
It's assinine to equate the 1918 pandemic to this farce. The two are only related as a disease outbreak. This article is as stupid as comparing chickenpox to the plague.
well , when there are a million dead in the usa by this time next year, things might change....how about we start a campaign to charge Trump with Mass genocide in the international courts and the UN.
Ah yes, a comparison to the Spanish Flu... brought up in December. People have been comparing them since the beginning, this isn't anything new. But the book is really cool & interesting.
What you think in your head doesn't always translate to the page. I think you're getting downvoted, because this sounded sarcastic.
Load More Replies...
And this, fellow pandas, is an astounding example of the very stupidity that causes millions and millions of deaths.
Load More Replies...
People never learn. The same things happen over and over again, and nobody lives long enough to see it.
There is also the problem of people expecting a different outcome because this situation is 'different' somehow. For example, Napoleon invaded Russia in June of 1812 and retreated after the army began to freeze to death in December. Just over 100 years later, Hitler tried the same thing, invasion began in June, army began to freeze to death in December resulting in retreat. "Same s**t, different show"
Load More Replies... I've read many books about diseases in history - smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague, syphilis, typhus, and of course, the Spanish Flu. I knew that a pandemic was a real possibility - actually, it was a few years overdue, if you put any stock in statistics. This may have made it easier for me to accept the situation, but conferred no other advantage. History repeats. Whether we learn enough to change our collective behavior will be up to future historians to determine.
I don't know if it's only me, but I feel that, the orange man and his team should be accused of genocide! This lying thing is not ok...Wear a mask for cryin' out loud!
Maybe not genocide, but assisting in murder, and spread of disinformation.
Load More Replies... Most sane people already knew about the similarities with the Spanish flu in June 2020. Only the idiots still have problems to this very day to understand what is going on.
I grew up hearing about the Spanish Flu. It affected my family, in that, if not for that pandemic I wouldn't be here. My grandfather (who was quite a bit older than my grandmother) had been married and had a son who died from the flu. Had they not died, he would not have married my grandmother and voila! No me. It's a weird feeling.
Load More Replies... Yep. A classic example of human behavior in a pandemic, along with 1346-50, etc. The one thing that stops a pandemic? Is a change in human behavior.
I have read the book twice. It gave a dire warning that a pandemic could and would happen. If only the nation's leaders had listened.......
There is an interesting video on YouTube by Ask a Mortician about the outbreak of the plague in SF in 1900. The parallels to today’s pandemic are eerie: denial if the danger by politicians, racism, and discrediting of medical professionals. The video is definitely worth a watch (like all her uploads).
I watched it and I agree. It is definitely worth watching! Bonus: she's funny, too.
Load More Replies... Have we learned nothing from history?? To quote one of my teachers, "You are the only thing stopping us from repeating history. YOU are the reason there won't be wars. Help the ones who don't see understand what were are doing. Don't repeat history."
This should be said at the beginning of every school day, everywhere, in every language. Let prayers and national anthems make way for this! Nationalism and religions create hostilities and war to enrich their leaders, they are the ones turning the eternal hamster wheel of human history.
Load More Replies... I have a letter from 1918. One page the young woman is talking about how sick people are and that there are deaths. Next page she talks of a dance coming up that weekend and there is no way they are going to make her stay home. Makes you wonder.
Heartless, cold, uncaring, unaware or really that unknowledgable?
Load More Replies... Both search engines and social media create opinion rabbit holes that it is easy to be fooled into, and, surprisingly enough, this often seems to happen to people who try to keep an open mind in general. It is often difficult to always separate mere opinion from real knowledge and once you have read an article selling toxic opinion, you will find more of its kind in your feed. This creates a problem for all of us because the human brain will accept as true anything that is repeated over and over. This is how cults function. So, please, listen to the scientists, but only to the relevant scientists. Is a professor of psychology (for example) a scientist? Yes, but they are not a virologist, in fact, they are not even a doctor, and no matter how strong an opinion they may have about the Covid pandemic - it is still only an opinion.
There is an interesting video on YouTube by Ask a Mortician about the outbreak of the plague in SF in 1900. The parallels to today’s pandemic are eerie: denial by politicians, racism, and discrediting of medical professionals. The video is definitely worth a watch (like all her uploads).
Read the book One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn, it’s about the 1918 pandemic. Of course, it’s a ghost story, but I relate a lot to what was going on back then
The Influenza plague of 1918. The bubonic plague of 1900 San Francisco. I feel it is a given. The initial reaction, by the ruling class, is to deny the danger to protect their business interests. (Yeah. The black death visited SF from 1900-04. Politician denial and inaction exasperated the pandemic for the entirety of their term in office. Lucky for us, the covid arrived in the final year of the former prez' term in office.)
The Common Reading program at Washington State University in 2007 was about the pandemic of 1918. Called Flue by Gina Kolata (she's an actual science writer)
people whine because they can't get their hairs cut... what do you expect? from such people?
My hair is now the longest it has been since I was a teenager, and it's a b***h to wash and brush. However, I can wait to have it cut. I can hardly wait to have it cut.
Load More Replies... The spanish flu 1918 - 1920 killed tens of millions. At least we are not there and most likely we will never reach that. I am thankful for that.
I've had the same thought as SneakyBasket... it's natures way of controlling the population... maybe it's also Mother Earth's way of saying "Stop killing me!"
Nah, it's not half as romantic as that. Our planet could not care less. The human race reminds me more of green lice on a rose bush in May, overpowering it, multiplying, covering it, until either their unwilling host and/or they are all dead. "By weight, 60% of the mammals on earth are livestock, 36% are humans and only 4% are wild." https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time
Load More Replies... The only thing we have learned from history is most people dont learn from history. The military isnt smarter than the President. They gave us all a vax last year that had coronavirus in it. Then they sent ships to sea where you literally sleep in racks three high and about a torso width apart. So many people came down with symptoms they had to take everyone off the ship and put them each in their own hotel rooms. Carries have over 5k on them. That is a lot of possible cases.
It's assinine to equate the 1918 pandemic to this farce. The two are only related as a disease outbreak. This article is as stupid as comparing chickenpox to the plague.
well , when there are a million dead in the usa by this time next year, things might change....how about we start a campaign to charge Trump with Mass genocide in the international courts and the UN.
Ah yes, a comparison to the Spanish Flu... brought up in December. People have been comparing them since the beginning, this isn't anything new. But the book is really cool & interesting.
What you think in your head doesn't always translate to the page. I think you're getting downvoted, because this sounded sarcastic.
Load More Replies... And this, fellow pandas, is an astounding example of the very stupidity that causes millions and millions of deaths.
Load More Replies...
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