The "Spanish Flu" and Progressivism

"I had a little bird

And its name was Enza

I opened to window

And in-flew-enza"

'Enza' the bird.

The influenza pandemic of 1918 was so catastrophic to the United States and the world that a child's jump rope rhyme was sung throughout the time period. It was like "Ring Around a Rosie", the rhyme which had been created during the Bubonic Plague. The "Spanish-Flu" is a misnomer considering the contagion actually started in Kansas, in the winter of 1918. Doctors had been dealing with bouts of pneumonia all winter and with the coming spring, the military base Fort Riley became a hot bed for the development of the rampant and mutated form of influenza known as Influenza A (H1N1). Doctors were continually perplexed by this new disease because it showed signs of a normal flu, but the patient would develop brown spots on their cheeks and would eventually die from suffocation, because of fluid and blood in their lungs. 

Infected rates of international cities.

I learned that the Influenza pandemic was a wake up call to health officials. The initial understanding of influenza was very limited, and this new strain of the virus was more than anyone could have expected. H1N1 was so  infectious that it was a pandemic rather than just an epidemic. That made all the difference. The level of infection was world-wide making it a pandemic. Had it just infected Fort Riley, Kansas like the Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, it would have remained a small epidemic limited to the state. Seeing this made me understand the difference between pandemic and epidemic. This in turn also made doctors of the time period work vigorously to disinfect the population and find a cure. This fit into the agenda of progressivism because it pushed for the betterment of public health and living conditions for citizens.

Laws of this time period became very extreme to aid in the sanitation of living conditions and to help kill off the virus. Laws would have included the banning of gathering in groups, coughing in public without properly covering your mouth, and even spitting 'carelessly'! Progressivism was a very aggressive movement and so were the procedures that were put into place during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. Many of these procedures are still in existence because they were placed as measures against the spread of a highly infectious disease, should one appear yet again. 

• Raymond C. Bloom Dies of Pneumonia At Camp Funston, March 14, 1918, Alburquerque, NM
• Strange Disease Is Sweeping Spain. Mysterious Plague Resembles Influenza--Nearly Half of Population Affected, May 28, 1918, Trenton Evening Times
• Spanish 'Flu' Spreads over All of Europe. 600 Deaths from Epidemic in London, August 8, 1918, Columbus Ledger
• The Spanish Epidemic of Influenza and Its War Aspects, July 11, 1918, Macon Telegraph
• Boston Is Hard Hit by Flu. Schools Closed as Death List Mounts, September 24, 1918, Salt Lake Telegram
• Beware of the Kiss! Germs of Deadly Spanish Influenza Spread by Osculatory Performance,September 20, 1918, Salt Lake Telegram
• Infowebs Website Link to The "Spanish Flu"