People Are Sharing “Do’s And Don’t’s” From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

History tends to repeat itself, and even though COVID-19 is not the worst flu whatsoever, we as a society seem to be making the same mistakes we did in 1918 during the Spanish Flu outbreak.

Talya Varga turned to Twitter to share an old newspaper article allegedly showing a list of “do’s and don’t’s” for preventing the Spanish Flu. Sadly, almost all of the entries look painfully familiar.

“Wear a mask,” reads the first. “Wash your hands before each meal”, says another. Not to mention the one that urges to “not disregard the advice of a specialist just because you do not understand.”

After Varga highlighted the issue, her tweet immediately went viral, sparking an important discussion.

People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

Image credits: TalyaVarga

People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

Image credits: TalyaVarga

The 1918 influenza pandemic is one of the most severe pandemics in recent history.

It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is no universal consensus regarding where the virus came from, it spread worldwide from 1918-1919.

In the US, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

Some estimates suggest that as many as 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was considered to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.

As the tweet started to go viral, more and more people began responding to it

People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

Image credits: Noname06401912

Social distancing saved thousands of American lives during the Spanish flu outbreak. Philadelphia, for example, detected its first case of a deadly, fast-spreading strain of influenza on September 17, 1918. The very next day, in an attempt to halt the virus’ spread, city officials launched a campaign against coughing, spitting, and sneezing in public. Good start. 10 days later, however, despite the potential epidemic, the city hosted a parade that 200,000 people attended.

Flu cases continued to climb until finally, on October 3, schools, churches, theaters, and public gathering spaces were closed.

Two weeks after the first reported case, there were at least 20,000 of them.

For comparison, when a case popped up in St. Louis, the city shut down most public gatherings and quarantined victims in their homes just two days later.

By the end of the pandemic, the death rate in St. Louis was less than half of the rate in Philadelphia.

About 358 people per 100,000 died in St Louis, while there were about 748 deaths per 100,000 people in Philadelphia.

It’s pretty saddening to see that while technology and medicine have made huge leaps since the beginning of the 20th century, our mindsets have somewhat remained the same, and we can’t come together to fight this microscopic yet very powerful enemy.

People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

Image credits: omicRocker

People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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People Are Sharing "Do's And Don't's" From 1918-1920 During The Spanish Flu, It Shows How History Repeats Itself

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 235 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Mindaugas Balčiauskas

Author, BoredPanda staff

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

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Roadkill The Brave 3 years ago

The mask thing was a huge issue back then too on people keeping them on. If I remember correctly they started doing adverts trying to build on people's national pride to get them to wear masks. China and a lot of Asia kept up the practice of mask wearing and have been doing so for the last 100 years since the Spanish Flu. Oh, fun fact, I have yet to find mask related breathing deaths from the last 100 year history in Asia. I'm still doing research on it, but nada so far, in fact since I've been wearing my mask I've started understanding part of the 'Allergy' reason why they're so popular, it's helped with my allergies, a lot more than I thought it would.

31points

Rage Racer 3 years ago

I love random knowledge drops!

3points