Sick of pandemic precautions? So were Americans in 1918. Here's what happened when they eased up.

[Initech]

Picture the United States struggling to deal with a deadly pandemic.

State and local officials enact a slate of social-distancing measures, gathering bans, closure orders, and mask mandates in an effort to stem the tide of cases and deaths.

The public responds with widespread compliance mixed with more than a hint of grumbling, pushback, and even outright defiance. As the days turn into weeks turn into months, the strictures become harder to tolerate.



Our predecessors might be forgiven for not staying the course longer. First, the nation was eager to celebrate the recent end of World War I, an event that perhaps loomed larger in the lives of Americans than even the pandemic.

Second, death from disease was a much larger part of life in the early 20th century, and scourges such as diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia each routinely killed tens of thousands of Americans every year. Moreover, neither the cause nor the epidemiology of influenza was well understood, and many experts remained unconvinced that social distancing measures had any measurable impact.

Finally, there were no effective flu vaccines to rescue the world from the ravages of the disease. In fact, the influenza virus would not be discovered for another 15 years, and a safe and effective vaccine was not available for the general population until 1945. Given the limited information they had and the tools at their disposal, Americans perhaps endured the public health restrictions for as long as they reasonably could.
https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-covid-19-1918-flu-pandemic-social-distancing-masks-20210324.html

You know the old saying - those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[qazplm135]

1. Except we do have vaccines

So it's not a direct correlation

[Initech]

2. True, and anti-vaxxers are going to have a rude awakening in the coming months.

Don't say we didn't warn you!

[qazplm135]

3. Sure

But that's always a problem with anti vaxxers.

My point is that the presence of effective vaccines makes pandemic restrictions being lightened defendable.

If you won't get a vaccine at this point, you deserve what you get.

Obviously those who can't get one should continue precautions.

[Initech]

5. Agreed!

If you don't get the vaccine, you have zero right to complain about what's going to happen to you.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Yep. Dang those kids (and the parents who didn't insist on vaccines)

They deserve whatever happens to them.

[qazplm135]

8. and of course

you know no one is including kids in this argument. No one is saying that at all.

[Ms. Toad]

9. We should be - which is precisely my point.

Until vaccinations are available to everyone, we have no business pretending this is over.

It is our responsiblity to protect those who are, so far, prohibited from protecting themselves. But that 15% of the populations - and our obligations to them - are being completely ignored in our rush to toss our masks off, and blame whatever happens to those who chose not to be vaccinated on their own choices.

[qazplm135]

11. vaccinations are never going to be available to everyone

if that's the standard, it's never over, but that's not the standard, herd immunity is, which we are closing in on.

The CDC I trust, people on the internet, less so...sorry, not sorry.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Seriously?

Vaccinatons are likely to be available to everyone by early fall.

Some people may have contraindications for taking them, but currently 15% of the population is prohibited from taking them.

As to the CDC, feel free to track my record as to transmission and course of the disease against the track record of the CDC. You can find all my predctions and assertions and confirm that well over 90% were accurate - and you can compare them to what the CDC was saying in the same time frame. Not a matter of trust - on these issues it is a matter of verifiable public record.

[qazplm135]

16. lol

anyone who comes on here and claims they are better than the CDC is not to be taken seriously. Sorry. You can have the last word.

[Ms. Toad]

17. I didn't claim to be better than the CDC on everything -

just that I have a better track record on issues related to the progress and transmission of COVID 19.

Just a few:

* As to masks (whether they are any good, whether they protect only the wearer or both) - you can find statements in March of last year about the efficacy of masks, when the CDC was still saying don't wear them, then wear them to protect others, then finally they also help protect you

* As to means of transmission (aerosolized particles) - again, as far back as March (the CDC finally came around what - a month ago?)

* Minimal fomite transmission - don't recall when I said that - but, again, long before the CDC did

* the mRNA vaccines prevent not just the severe consequences of the disease, but the disease itself.

* As to progress of the disease, I was accurately predicting that sometime in January of last year, and have predicted key milestones within 24 hours.

(I make no claim to have done the underlying research on any of these - but I have watched the research very closely and have used it to both protect myself an dmy family and share information here that has been more accurate, earlier, than the statements by the CDC on at least each of the above.)

[Initech]

13. When I define anti-vaxxers...

I am referring to the people who are distributing propaganda on Facebook and those who believe it's true. I have a neighbor who's an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist who at one point didn't believe the pandemic was real because there was footage on Facebook being passed around of an empty hospital. Of course what he didn't know was that particular hospital that was filmed wasn't properly equipped to handle respiratory illnesses. Which is why it was mostly empty.

It's not people who choose not to because of religious or health reasons. It's people that believe the bullshit propanda that's going around, and are being smug, arrogant assholes about this, that I'm so pissed off at. And these are the people who I am not sympathetic to. And the people who are creating this content and distributing it to people who believe it, like my neighbor, can go eat a bag of rancid dog shit.

[Ms. Toad]

15. I'm not quibbling over the definition of anti-vaxxers.

I am pointing out the reality that 15% of our population is currently prohibited from being vaccinated - and we have an obligation to protect them.

Currently public policy is based on not angering the maskholes (let's just use the honor system), rather than on protectng people who are currently prohibited from being vaccinated. That policy and attitude is perpetuated by folks like those on DU who - rather than advocating for policies that would protect that vulnerable population - adopt a F*%& you position toward the unvaccinated who come down with COVID (treating it as if everyone has a choice).

[former9thward]

23. What is going to happen to them?

Most of those not vaccinated are young or they have had Covid already.

[Deep State Witch]

4. Yup

My great-grandmother died of the flu in October 1918. My grandfather was 9 years old. His dad remarried, and he wound up with the stereotypical evil stepmother. The course of my mother's family was changed because of that.

[Ms. Toad]

7. My grandmother survived -

And her sewing kit, and stork scissors touched every mask I made.

[Blue_true]

24. My Mom was an infant and my Dad was about 7 years old.

Both obviously survived.

[RegularJam]

10. We haven't had precautions in my area for some time.

Our numbers continue to go down. All of todays numbers we are seeing are "fully open" numbers, for the most part.

We also have a vaccine. That aspect should be a part of your "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" statement.

[FakeNoose]

12. My grandparents were teenagers at the end of WWI

I thank my lucky stars that they survived the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19. They were clever and resourceful, and they carried the healthy genes of Irish and German immigrants.

When the authorities told everyone to stay home and wear masks, THEY DID IT! My grandparents met and married in 1920, and in another few years my Dad was born. I'm sure most American families are telling stories just like this to their kids and grandkids, so where's the disconnect? What's the difficulty in understanding that we do what we have to do, when our OWN SURVIVAL depends on it?

[gratuitous]

19. Welcome to DU ClinicalDeathTrial

[SunImp]

20. Stop making alt accounts and get a life loser!

[gratuitous]

21. I posted the welcome post for a reason

[SunImp]

22. I've seen that guy post the same thing several times before on different accounts.

He never makes it past 2 posts before getting banned. I think he came from the conservative underground forum

[Greybnk48]

25. My 25 y/o grandmother died in 1918 of the pandemic. She was 5 months pregnant

with her fifth child. She and my grandfather came here from Belfast, Northern Ireland and settled in Billings Montana. My dad was about 6 at the time, but clearly remembered it. He had 3 siblings, a sister who was about 5, and two brothers, one 3 and one just under 1. She became sick and died in a matter of 3 days.

My grandfather, who was in his late 30's, never got sick. Neither did any of the kids.

[Initech]

26. I'm one of those people who never gets sick.

Don't get colds, don't get flus, don't get pneumonia. And I am related to people who do.

I personally credit spending my middle school years at Raging Waters as the reason why I have such a strong immune system.