How we 'recovered' from the Spanish flu should be a warning for the coronavirus age

[TexasTowelie]

Last edited Sun May 10, 2020, 07:36 AM - Edit history (1)

A century ago, the flu killed roughly 50 million people worldwide, negatively shaped the global order for years afterward and was spectacularly mishandled by political leaders trying mightily to ignore it.

The Spanish influenza offers a painful cautionary lesson at odds with what I’m reading by today’s futurists — many of whom have adopted a “creative destruction” metaphor to describe the impact of COVID-19. According to their reasoning, the misery inflicted by the coronavirus will pave the way for universal health care, a renaissance of American manufacturing and cities, better public epidemiology, more-accountable politicians, a global population hardened by “herd immunity” and the end of science denial.

We wish, naturally if desperately, for the silver lining.

Lacking a crystal ball, I propose that, if we want to realize that silver lining, we should pay closer attention to how the Spanish flu played out in American politics and society as that epidemic ran its course.

Read more: https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-doyle-coronavirus-spanish-flu-0510-20200509-ncq6nlsfanegvnm5wpxdp7j5re-story.html

[MFM008]

1. Many forgot the lessons of

1918.
Im looking at a book called
'The Forgotten Pandemic'.
They are trying to forget this one
Before its over.....

[Freddie]

2. This is key

“The Spanish influenza offers a painful cautionary lesson at odds with what I’m reading by today’s futurists — many of whom have adopted a “creative destruction” metaphor to describe the impact of COVID-19. According to their reasoning, the misery inflicted by the coronavirus will pave the way for universal health care, a renaissance of American manufacturing and cities, better public epidemiology, more-accountable politicians, a global population hardened by “herd immunity” and the end of science denial.”

At the beginning of this I too thought perhaps this country would finally have to work together on some issues and get it right. Boy was I wrong. Instead the polarization is worse than ever. The Trump strategy is now to proclaim that the “left” is exaggerating the whole thing, that the number of dead and suffering is completely falsified, and the whole thing is a plot to destroy the economy so he loses the election. That wearing masks and taking precautions is just “big government” infringing on your rights. And because the disease hasn’t reached many places, especially in more rural areas, it’s easy for them to believe it’s all a hoax or just a “big city” problem. It’s far too easy for Repugs in office to lie about the number of cases and deaths, to reinforce this opinion.

How did we get here, that 100000 deaths is seen as a political ploy? I’m truly terrified that the Trump cultists will twist this is a way that they will squeak out another EC “win”.

[2naSalit]

4. The concept

that we have to work together won't come around to collective consciousness in the US until we are forced to admit it and use that knowledge. Not enough have died or suffered to make it clear as a sunset that what we have to do to survive is work together to enough of us to actually make it happen.

Seems like the 1918 was much the same.

[Freddie]

5. I want Trump and/or Pence to get it

They’ve certainly been exposed enough. Not to die, but to get very, very sick. Like Boris Johnson. It’s going to take the serious illness of one of “theirs” to wake them up.

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

The turn away from internationalism awakened xenophobia at home. Congress passed two highly restrictive immigration acts in 1921 and 1924, and the first Red Scare emerged in 1919. The working classes, fed up with wartime demands for greater labor, difficult conditions and low wages, staged a general strike in Seattle in February 1919 that shut down the city. Class unrest generated hysteria that led federal agents to target radical labor unions for destruction and foreign and domestic “agitators” for arrest and deportation.

Race relations grew increasingly fraught. Chicago experienced a brutal race riot in the summer of 1919, and Tulsa, Okla., followed suit two years later. Thirty-eight people died in Chicago, perhaps hundreds in Tulsa, and the Ku Klux Klan morphed from a Southern hate group to an organization with national reach and membership.

The quest to curb disorder included ratification of the 18th Amendment in January 1919, abolishing the sale and distribution of alcohol. Prohibition was meant to curb wayward tendencies among the same suspect groups targeted just after the war: “unruly” immigrants, workers and African Americans.

Fear, suspicion and hysteria need not have prevailed. The immediate postwar years coincided with the first votes cast by women (they voted in the election of 1920); marvelous technological developments including national radio broadcasts, the proliferation of Hollywood movies and the rapid evolution of air travel; as well as a burst of artistic creativity ranging from jazz to Lost Generation and Harlem Renaissance poetry and prose.

[AntiFascist]

6. We're still fighting a variant of the Spanish flu...

now known as H1N1 or Swine Flu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1

It's not as bad as the Spanish Flu, but it has killed about 75,000 Americans in the last 10 years.

https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/11/h1n1-swine-flu-10-years-later/

[appalachiablue]

7. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most

explosive events of the 20th century. The impacts in the US included a turn away from internationalism, the use of force against labor unrest and rising socialism, the first Red Scare, race riots and the restriction of immigration laws.

[kelly97]

8. Thank you for posting this

More people should see this. Thank you

[TexasTowelie]

9. You're welcome.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from history.

[live love laugh]

10. Welcome to DU