How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Revolutionized Public Health

[TGM]

Just reading about the Paris 'flu epidemic and thought of another one one hundred years ago this year. This is Laura Spinney's perspective published as an article on the Smithsonian: 

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Revolutionized Public Health / Laura Spinney (Paris), 27/0/2017 
 

Snippet

 

 

See also Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World/Laura Spinney.

Spinney's Blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Pale-Rider-Spanish-Changed-World-ebook/dp/B01N22ZOHC

Reviews: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/how-many-of-us-has-a-forebear-who-died-of-spanish-flu/

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1245

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pale-rider-the-spanish-flu-of-1918-and-how-it-changed-the-world-by-laura-spinney-snd96x8hn

https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21722613-new-book-looks-global-impact-spanish-flu-deadliest-disease-history

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/04/pale-rider-laura-spinney-spanish-flu-review-absorbing-study

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/22/pale-rider-laura-spinney-review

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2017/09/18/pale-rider/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/review-a-world-of-sickness-1512938536

 

Edited 7 January , 2018 by TGM

[4thGordons]

I notice you don't list John M. Barry's book there.

I thought it was an excellent review of the US situation and wiht particular attention to the deplorable state of public medicine in the US in the late 19th early 20th Century. (I am midway through Spinney's book at the moment)

Chris

 

[TGM]

1 minute ago, 4thGordons said:

I notice you don't list John M. Barry's book there.

I thought it was an excellent review of the US situation and wiht particular attention to the deplorable state of public medicine in the US in the late 19th early 20th Century. (I am midway through Spinney's book at the moment)

Chris

 

Thanks... as mentioned above I was just thinking...

 

[maxi]

TGM

Thank you for this post and as a result I will be taking a keener interest in this subject and will look into buying John M Barry's book.

Maxi

[TGM]

Good to hear, Maxi.

There is a decade between the appearance of the two books so I would be interested to hear 4thGordons'  views on both.

 

For those interested in Barry's book:

Amazon.co.uk link / Internet Archive

 

Recentish  Reviews: 

http://themilitaryreviewer.blogspot.co.uk/

https://wamu.org/story/17/12/20/a-key-lesson-from-the-1918-flu-pandemic-tell-the-truth-one-historian-says/

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200408053510624#t=article

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC450178/

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01947648.2015.1262197

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3401416?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2017/09/18/pale-rider/ (cites both books)

http://www.historynet.com/interview-john-m-barry-scholar-writer.htm

 

Some citations

Worth visiting - Geere's Pandemics: a reading list  page : https://howwegettonext.com/pandemics-a-reading-list-2d8bf7434d9f

 

BTW - conference of interest: Going Viral: Impact and Implications of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (USA)

 

[TGM]

Just thought I would add this from Dutch scientists/practitioners.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181817/.

 

Edited 14 January , 2018 by TGM

[TGM]

Just noticed a forthcoming TNA talk on Spanish Flu: the global pandemic:

[TGM]

Just spotted a HistoryExtra podcast of an interview with Catharine Arnold on her new book Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History.

[TGM]

Worth listening to today's Start the Week: Survival and Destruction (BBC Radio 4) with Jonathan D Quick.

(also includes a contribution by A Beevor about his book on Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944)

Edited 28 May , 2018 by TGM

[TGM]

Spotted in latest issue of The Lancet

 

Pandemic Influenza: 100 years

Quote

we have highlighted some of our landmark papers in a historical timeline below, plus we have also made our most highly cited articles FREE to access until Aug 31, 2018.

 

Also in same issue:

Spanish influenza redux: revisiting the mother of all pandemics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31360-6

 

 

Edited 22 June , 2018 by TGM

[Terry_Reeves]

 I would also suggest taking a look at the Chief Medical Officers reports in your local archives to see what happened in your particular area. These can be quite illuminating not only as to numbers but also how it spread within an area. 

 

TR

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, Terry_Reeves said:

 I would also suggest taking a look at the Chief Medical Officers reports in your local archives to see what happened in your particular area. These can be quite illuminating not only as to numbers but also how it spread within an area. 

 

TR

 

   And for many areas of the UK, the local Medical Officer of Health reports are available for nowt having been digitised by the Wellcome Library

[TGM]

Good points Terry_Reeves. 

 

Overview and how to search:  http://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/about-the-reports/about-the-medical-officer-of-health-reports/

Though I note some reports are missing for key years in several areas I have checked.

 

[TGM]

Useful article in The Observer today:

 

Snippet:

 

Edited 9 September , 2018 by TGM

[Loader]

A few yrs ago I saw a documentary about that awful pandemic. It scared the hell out of me! My grandmother said all of her family survived because they were so far out in the countryside they had not contact with others & her parents made sure they did not. Whatever the truth they were extremely lucky.

[TGM]

Yes, a sobering thought.

[TGM]

Podcast of interest:

 

Flu Do You Think You Are? (from the The Naked Scientists)

[TGM]

Also recently broadcast:

The Flu that killed 50 million (BBC Two Scotland)

 

Quote

It is 1918 and the end of WWI. Millions have died, and the world is exhausted by war. But soon a new horror is sweeping the world, a terrifying virus that will kill more than fifty million people - the Spanishflu. Using dramatic reconstruction and eyewitness testimony from doctors, soldiers, civilians and politicians, this one-off special brings to life the onslaught of the disease, the horrors of those who lived through it and the efforts of the pioneering scientists desperately looking for the cure.

Narrated by Christopher Eccleston, the film also asks whether, a century later, the lessons learnt in 1918 might help us fight a future global flu pandemic.

 

[TGM]

Nicely illustrated page by CWGC on Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fight of the First World War

[TGM]

New video:

Spanish Flu: A Warning from History (Cambridge University,  30 Nov 2018)

[MikeyH]

Elizabeth my grandmother, died of Spanish Flu in 1919 in Co. Cavan, Ireland.

The RIC referring to Cavan, stated 'The disease carried of a great many and affected nearly every household'.

 

Mike.

 

Edited 30 November , 2018 by MikeyH

[TGM]

 

I came across this today:

 

The Mask Slackers of 1918

 

As the influenza pandemic swept across the United States in 1918 and 1919, masks took a role in political and cultural wars.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/mask-protests-1918.html

[Ivor Anderson]

Interesting item from the 18th Division HQ War Diary - October 1918 (from TNA):

Edited 20 December , 2020 by Ivor Anderson