[The following takes place in the city of Philadelphia, USA, during the early days of the spread of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Here, we can see the ineffective and corrupt local government of Wilmer Krusen attempting to calm the public by denying the seriousness of the situation.]
What should I do? people wondered, with dread. How long will it go on? Each day people discovered that friends and neighbors who had been perfectly healthy a week – or a day – earlier were dead.
And city authorities and newspapers continued to minimize the danger. The Public Ledger claimed nonsensically that Krusen’s order banning all public gatherings was not “a public health measure” and reiterated, “There is no cause for panic or alarm.”
On October 5, doctors reported that 254 people died that day from the epidemic, and the papers quoted public health authorities as saying, “The peak of the influenza epidemic has been reached.” When 289 Philadelphians died the next day, the papers said, “Believing that the peak of the epidemic has passed, health officials are confident.”
In each of the next two days more than three hundred people died, and again Krusen announced, “These deaths mark the high water mark in the fatalities, and it is fair to assume that from this time until the epidemic is crushed the death rate will constantly be lowered.”
The next day 428 people died, and the daily death toll would keep climbing for many days yet – approaching double even that figure.
Krusen said, “Don’t get frightened or panic stricken over exaggerated reports.”
But Krusen’s reassurances no longer reassured.
Source:
Barry, John M. “Explosion.” The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Penguin Books, 2009. 221-22. Print.
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...