Читать книгу Spanish Flu vs Covid-19, which is the worst pandemic? - Farzana Prior - Страница 6

In both cases, since there was no treatment available, the most effective control was immediate ‘crowd control’ as it was called then, and ‘social distancing’ as it is called today. This act of limiting contact between people worked in 1918, and it works today, and will work for future pandemics.

As it is with all pandemics there is tension between the biological reality of the pandemic, and the social and economic realities of the people caught in the pandemic. Biology is not changeable, but the behaviour of people is. This tension explains the absence of an early and forceful comprehensive response in 1918. Instead political leaders played down the risk to stall for time because World War 1 (1914-1918) was in a critical period and there was pressure to end and win the war.

The advice from Woodrow Wilson (president of USA, 1913-1921) was not to be concerned about this disease as it was a Spanish Flu, meaning that it was a foreign disease that infected others. It wasn’t until the Fall of 1919, when a more virulent strain of the Spanish Flu emerged that Washington DC began to take the Spanish Flu more seriously.

In the absence of a comprehensive federal response, cities and states, in the US made their own decisions, and many chose the economy over public health, with deadly results. This disjointed federal response took place during the Spanish Flu as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, under the Trump administration.

During the Spanish Flu, Seattle and San Francisco ordered people to wear masks in public, whereas many other cities did not. New York City never closed schools, citing that they were cleaner than homes. Chicago police officers were ordered to arrest anyone coughing, sneezing, or spitting in public.

Studies found that cities that acted quickly and forcefully, like St Louis, which imposed complete lockdown within two days of its first Spanish Flu case, had much lower peak death rates, than cities like New Orleans, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Police officers in Seattle during the Spanish flu epidemic

Attribution: National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures (RDSS)

While some have learnt from the Spanish Flu experience, others have repeated the same mistakes when responding to Covid-19. During Covid-19, countries like United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom had some of the highest confirmed Covid-19 deaths. In the United States the seven US states of Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas reported the highest new cases of Covid-19 hospitalisation.

Are we heading for another catastrophic loss of life because we are unable to learn from the mistakes of the past? Or is Covid-19 so different from the Spanish Flu that the lessons learned then cannot be applied now? Or perhaps Covid-19 is man-made and therefore a much worse pandemic?