Spanish Flu

The Great Influenza Epidemic: Misnamed, Deadly, and Unforgettable

This episode of History's a Disaster, hosted by Andrew, explores the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918, often misnamed as the Spanish Flu. The virus, caused by the H1N1 strain, spread in three waves during and after World War I, resulting in the deadliest pandemic in recorded history. Despite heavy censorship due to wartime, the flu's impact was devastating, affecting soldiers and civilians worldwide and killing nearly 100 million people. The episode dives into the specific spread of the virus, its symptoms, misconceptions about its origins, and the various public responses and consequences of the epidemic.

00:00 Introduction to the Spanish Flu
02:13 Origins and Early Spread
04:45 The First Wave Hits
08:13 The Devastating Second Wave
16:13 The Third Wave and Aftermath
17:32 Conclusion and Lessons Learned

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Transcript

Andrew: 0:00

In the early months of 1918 as World War I was winding down, a deadly virus traveled across the globe, what would later be incorrectly called the Spanish flu. It would cause the worst pandemic in recorded history and last until 19. 20. Andrew, and this is History's a Disaster. Tonight we are diving into the great influenza epidemic caused by influenza a. Or the H one N one virus that traveled across the globe during World War I, it struck in three different waves over two years. It is most commonly referred to as the Spanish flu, which isn't really correct. It's not even Spanish at all. The name Spanish Flu is a consequence of World War I Censorship. Spain being a neutral country during the war had no restrictions on the press, allowing newspapers to freely report the flu's effects. This gave the wrong impression that the flu was more severe in Spain at the time. Every other country involved in the war did not want to put out more depressing news with the war going on. So the effects of the flu were heavily censored. Initial symptoms of the flu included a sore head and fatigue followed by a dry hacking cough, a loss of appetite, stomach problems, and then on the second day excessive sweating. Next, the illness could affect the respiratory organs and pneumonia could develop pneumonia or other respiratory complications brought about by the were often the main cause of death. Its exact origins are still unknown to this day. One of the leading theories among historians and scientists is that it may have started among livestock or possibly as a bird flu and mutated to make the jumps to humans when and where it started is also up for debate. With Kansas being one of the top choices of when and where. March of 1918, the first known reports of flu appeared in Fort Riley, Kansas. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions created a fertile breeding ground for the virus. Within one week, 522 men had been admitted to the camp hospital suffering from the same severe flu. Soon after the Army reported similar outbreaks in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and California Navy ships docked East Coast ports, also reported outbreaks of severe flu and pneumonia among their crews. The flu seemed to target military personnel and not civilians. So. The virus was largely overshadowed by hotter current affairs Within five weeks, 1,127 cases would be reported coming out of Fort Riley with 46 of them resulting in death deaths, which would be attributed to pneumonia by May. The soldiers in Fort Riley had finished their training and were being shipped out. They were packed into transport ships for the Long Sea voyage. The ships were cramped and they were shoved into airless halls. This was the perfect breeding ground for the flu or the three day fever, as they called it. By time they made it to France. The flu had spread out and jumped to more soldiers as they arrived. The hospitals in France were soon filled up with six soldiers. Most would recover, but some would develop a secondary pneumonia and would not survive with the flu spreading mostly among the enlisted, it would start to die out in the states. However, it was just starting to build up in Europe and beginning its first wave around the globe. French troops would be the next to start to feel the effects of the flu before it traveled into Spain. Spain not subject to the same censorship as the other countries reported. An estimated 8 million cases of the flu during May and June, which is what led to it being called the Spanish Flu. The battlefield trenches of France became a breeding ground for this deadly flu. Soldiers living in cramped, dirty, and damp conditions became ill. This was a direct result of weakened immune systems from malnourishment through illnesses, which were known as lag Grpa, or the grip were infectious and spread among the troops within around three days of becoming ill, many soldiers would start to feel better, but not all would survive. The Royal Navy reported over 10,000 cases of flu while they dealt with constant bombing raids, food shortages, and growing casualties. The flu spread quickly up and down the Western front. No army was safe from it, whether it was purulent bronchitis in France, sand fly fever in Italy. Or the Blitz Qatar in Germany, everyone had their own name for it and everyone felt its effects. Berlin would report 160,000 cases, including Kaiser Wilhelm. The Germans would later blame the flu for the failure of their July offensive, which had severely weakened the army. By July, the flu swept into Austria-Hungary in Switzerland. The Swiss army was almost completely hit with the flu and the Swiss reported over 50,000 cases in July alone. Thousands more would soon be reported in Denmark and Norway. The flu would soon cross both oceans traveling on Navy and merchant vessels alike. Hitting places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico. No place on the globe was safe. Soon, Asia was under attack as it swept through China and Japan. Japan's Navy would be almost completely hit with the flu. During the summer months as the flu traveled, the globe overfilling hospitals and leaving millions stricken in its wake, it changed during autopsies of the dead. The lungs were found in terrible conditions from hemorrhaging to abscesses and edema, and even complete collapse. It was unlike anything they had ever seen. Throughout July, it got deadlier as it hit Russia, India, Africa, and New Zealand. Within four months, it would completely travel the globe. Ending its first wave with tens of thousands dead yet, still completely ignored because of the war. The second wave would be harder to ignore. Its tens of thousands turned into tens of millions dead. No one paid much attention as the first wave died out in mid-July, but near the end of August, the second wave began. It was the same flu since those who got it in the first wave were now immune to it, but now it had changed. The first case of the second wave was reported in breast France. Within days it would be in Boston, Massachusetts. Freetown Sierra Leone in West Africa, it would quickly spread across the globe. Again, infecting hundreds of millions of people. No place was safe from the epidemic, and this time it was far deadlier. It hit the lungs hard, damaging and turning them red and hard. Lungs would fill with liquid and without adequate oxygen, the sick would start to turn blue. Spots would appear over their cheekbones and within a few hours, the blue color would expand from their ears across their faces. Nurses would have to check a person's feet to even tell what race the person was, and if their feet were blue and turning to black, they were already too far gone for any chance to save them. This would also lead to it being called the Blue Death. Unlike most flus or illnesses where the young and elderly are the most at risk, this strain of H one N one tore through the average healthy adults. In fact, it seemed to prefer them. It hit the average adult at a rate far greater than that of the elderly. By September with more soldiers coming home and mixing with the civilian population, the flu jumped and ran through the city of Boston. They tried to downplay the seriousness of the flu, but by mid-September there was over 3000 cases. In 40 deaths in Boston, hospitals were overflowing to the point that they set up tents to be used as makeshift hospitals. By mid-October, the death toll was nearing 4,000. There was a huge shortage of doctors and nurses and citizens were being asked to volunteer to help out. Public schools were shut down because of the lack of healthy teachers. The railway was rarely on time because of the lack of staffing, and the phones had so few operators that everyone was asked to keep phone calls to emergencies, only to try to stop the spread and limit contact between people. The movie theaters, restaurants and bars were shut down. The morgues were backed up. There was not enough coffins to go around and the grave digs could not keep up with demand. Although funerals were kept small, the streets were always filled with mourners. While they hoped to contain the flu to Boston, it quickly spread to the rest of the country with most military bases being quarantined. They tried to stop the spread, but it was too late. It had already hit the civilian population and it was spreading. No law or ordinance they passed or mask or remedies they tried could stop the spread. By the fall of 1918, more Americans died of the flu than in the, there was cure for. It can only be fought with symptomatic treatments and improvised remedies. They tried to make vaccines, but since their understanding of viruses was virtually non-existent, they did not work. It would not be until the 1930s with the use of an electron microscope that doctors would end up having a better understanding of the nature of viruses. In the face of doctors' helplessness, ordinary people tried anything they could to treat their friends and family. One of the most popular cures included significant doses of alcohol, especially whiskey and brandy. Other attempted cures range from camper and quinine to Crete and strict nine. So in other words, if you can't drown it out with alcohol, why not poison it? I'm sure that worked out for people very well. Preventative public health measures were essential. In order to try to stem the spread of the flu out of every major American city, Philadelphia would be hit the hardest. Despite early warnings about the flu, they did little to prepare for it. The director of the Department of Health and Charities went as far as to tell the city there was little chance it would spread from the military to civilian population. He was backed up by the head of the local Navy district saying how they were confident, they knew how to stop it. Fooled by these false assumptions, Philadelphia took no precautions. In over 200,000 people gathered in the streets to watch a massive parade that stretched across the city in just days afterwards, the flu exploded all over the city. By the middle of October 2,600, were dead in a week with another 4,500 the following week. Philadelphia was fucked. Essential services were failing. The hospitals were crowded, overflow, hospitals were packed. Nearly 500 of the city's police force was too sick to work. The Bureau of Children's Hygiene was crowded with kids whose parents were dead or dying. The morgue had bodies stacked in the halls in every corner they could find. The city had to take over a cold storage plant to serve as a secondary morgue for all the corpses. In just over a month, over 12,000 residents lost their lives to the epidemic. This was just one city, which sadly was typical of all the rest. Other cities did not take the threat seriously. They all thought it wouldn't happen here, that it couldn't happen, so they did nothing until it was too late. If not, for the volunteers that stepped up, things would've been far worse. Student nurses and other medical students assumed duties they were not quite prepared for all in an effort to help volunteers with no medical training helped fill in as volunteer nurses with no public health services to help organize them. Volunteers helped out wherever they could. By November, the second wave would start to burn itself out. Just in time for the signing of the arm's thesis that ended World War I. People went outside again and reconnected with neighbors and friends after being quarantined and with the end of the war, they had something else to celebrate. While cases of the flu were going down by the end of December, they would start to rise again before peaking in January. It would not make headlines like the second wave. This third wave was overshadowed by the Paris Peace Conferences. Most people assumed it was just a winter cold, but it was still as deadly as the second wave with over 3000 dying in New York alone over two months, and another 3000 in Paris. President Woodrow Wilson would become ill, and it is believed that the flu contributed to his downfall and eventual stroke. The third wave would die down in the US during the summer months of 1919, but stayed active in other parts of the world. It would finally burn itself out completely in Japan in 1920. The US public health services would be greatly expanded, American public health policies would be improved significantly, and many important lessons would be learned in containing a future epidemic. And that was the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, the Deadliest Epidemic in Recorded History that claimed the lives of nearly 100 billion people. Thanks for listening. And if you liked the episode, please consider leaving a rating or review on your app of choice and you can reach the show at histories a disaster@gmail.com or through social media under the same name. And as always, share the show'cause sharing is caring and if there was more caring in the world, maybe history wouldn't be a disaster. Thanks and goodbye.