“I made money rapidly,” Charles Sligh explained, “The demands for flowers frequently were so great that all the florists in this community exhausted their supply daily, and the prices of everything were very high then.”1 Along with florists, funeral directors, and orderlies were also making a killing during World War One. “The undertaker which was half a block away from me had pine boxes on the sidewalk, pilled high. Me and two of my friends would go down there and play on those boxes; it was like playing on the pyramids.”2 Although business was booming for these professions, it was not because of the war. It was the result of an unexpected killer that swept across the world claiming victims at an unprecedented rate.
The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic stretched its lethal tentacles all over the globe, even to the most remote areas of the planet, killing fifty million people or possibly even more. Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century, and it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.3 Influenza normally kills the elderly and infants, but this deadly and abnormal strand claimed young people, those in their twenties or thirties as its target victims. Such was the case for Jules Bergeret. Jules was a “big, strapping man” who owned a tavern during the epidemic, and on December 11 he celebrated his 32 birthday. Within two weeks Jules, his mother, his sister, and his 25 year old wife all fell victim to the flu, and on December 22 he was dead.4 The virus left victims bleeding out of their nose ears and mouth; some coughing so hard that autopsies would later show that abdominal muscles and rib cartilage had been torn. Victims ...
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...: A Survey, (1927)
John. M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Penguin, 2004), 179
“Gauze Masks for men on port keep Flu away,” Stars and Stripes, November, 1, 1918.
Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic, The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 193
John. M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Penguin, 2004), 171
Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic, The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 156
Anne A. Colon, “Experiences during the Epidemic,” The American Journal of Nursing (1919): 607
“Spanish Influenza”, Journal of the American Medical Association 71(8):660
Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (United States: The Modern Library, 1936), 255
The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.
“My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it. He was buried in Mount Hopewell Baptist Churchyard.” ( pg 949)
In The Great Influenza, John M. Barry educates citizens of the everyday challenges that scientists face through utilizing rhetorical questions, cause and effect, and contrast. Barry’s uses of the rhetorical strategies highlights the beauty of uncertainty because of failure, scientists can make new discoveries everyday. In relation
In the early 1900's, strikes, riots, labor unions, and new political parties arose across the country. The government, with its laissez-faire attitude, allowed business to consolidate into trusts, and with lack of competition, into powerful monopolies. These multi-million dollar monopolies were able to exploit every opportunity to make greater fortunes regardless of human consequences. Sinclair illustrates the harsh conditions in Packingtown through a Lithuanian immigrant family and their struggles to survive. Ona, a young and frail woman, and Jurgis, a hardworking and strong man and the husband of Ona, come to America with some of their family to find work and to make a new and better life for themselves. With everyone finding employment right away, the family begins their lives in America with optimism, enthusiasm, and ignorance. Taking a huge risk, they purchase a small rickety house. Slowly, they awaken to the harsh realities of their surroundings. There's the mortg...
After reading The Panic Virus, it became evident that this book can in fact be extremely useful. Perhaps people prefer not to educate themselves about vaccination on the grounds that medical language can be dry, confusing, and uninteresting. Perhaps they don’t wish to listen to medical professionals due to the fact that they feel that they have an agenda to protect themselves. Whatever the reason, the need for Mnookin’s The Panic Virus is to provide a strong argument for pro-vaccination that is given by a member of the reader’s peers. Mnookin is not a medical professional, and has no personal gain from defending the medical field; therefore, his argument is ‘by the people, for the people’. Mnookin’s tone throughout the novel also makes The Panic Virus a page-turner. Mnookin uses a tone that is at times formal and factual and at other times snide and informal, engaging the reader with every
Collection, Phillip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever. n.d. English translation [from Spanish] of the Informed Consent Agreement for Antonio Benigno, November 26, 1900.
CDC (2007, 02) Community strategy for pandemic influenza mitigation in the United States Retrieved from http://www.flu.gov/planning-preparedness/community/community_mitigation.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Essen, G. A., "The Socio-Economic Impact of Influenza". http://www.eswi.org/Bulletin_October_1997.cfm [2] Frayha, Husn. " Influenza Vaccination: A Call for Action" http://www.kfshrc.edu.sa/annals/176/97-248R.html [3] "Influenza". http://www.caw.ca/whatwedo/health&safety/factsheet/hsfssubstanceno37.asp
Glasner, Joyce. “Yellow Fever.” Canada’s History 91.3 (2011): 46-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
"The Plague." Novels for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 202-222. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.
"Pandemic Flu History." Home. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d. Web. 23 Mar.
One of the most virulent strains of influenza in history ravaged the world and decimated the populations around the world. Present during World War I, the 1918 strain of pandemic influenza found many opportunities to spread through the war. At the time, science wasn’t advanced enough to study the virus, much less find a cure; medical personnel were helpless when it came to fighting the disease, and so the flu went on to infect millions and kill at a rate 25 times higher than the standard.
Mary Lowth, “Plagues, pestilence and pandemics: Deadly diseases and humanity,” Practice Nurse, 16, (2012): 42-46
From the Chelsea Naval Hospital, overlooking the Boston Bay, I sip on a cup of Joe and browse over the Sports Section of the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this month, three Bostonians dropped dead from influenza. In examining the extent of the epidemic, Surgeon-General Blue commented to the Times , "People are stricken on the streets, while at work in factories, shipyards, offices or elsewhere. First there is a chill, then fever with temperature from 101 to 103, headache, backache, reddening and running of the eyes, pains and aches all over the body, and general prostration." I gaze out my window, the sun seems brighter than usual and the town more radiant. It must be the victory, for the threat of death due to influenza is pervasive. Outside, children jump rope. With every skip of the jump rope they chant. "I had a little bird." Skip. "Its name was Enza." Skip. "I opened up the window." Skip. "And in-flu-enza."