Influenza's Impacts on Manchester's Society

Influenza's Impacts on Manchester's Society

Society Shaken

Like countless cities across the globe, Manchester, England has had a difficult time adjusting to the impact of influenza.

Countless residents are ill. Numerous schools have been closed. A recent decree has banned children under the age of 13 from "picture-houses and all places licensed for amusement." Now, public discussion has begun which could impede upon personal liberties in defense of the public health.

A proposed Health Ministry would have the power to compel individuals to medical examinations and quarantines. One proponent within the Ministry of National Service has argued that such powers would mean that "not only influenza, but consumption, venereal disease, and many other of our most deadly plagues could be banished form the land in a few decades."

Still, others wonder if such powers could actually be effective enough to warrant the invasion of privacy which they require. "It ain't the government's job to go looking down your throat and up your knickers" complained Manchester native Ms. Winston.

Within the judicial system, the strain of influenza has required the easing of some legal precedent. In one example, a recently arrested lady doctor was quickly released from custody per the instruction of the Lord Mayor so that she may aid in the fight against the influenza.

This leniency is understandable given the great toll which the extremely contagious disease has had upon health care workers. Recent reports indicate that within Manchester, over 300 nurses are infected, 10 have died, and one half of the ambulance staff is infected with influenza.

Gravediggers, too, have been overburdened by the epidemic. The government has recently required that the City Engineer's department lend workers to aid with the required grave digging.

Advertisement Epidemic?

While the doctors and nurses of Manchester battle vigorously and daily against the influenza outbreak, another struggle rages on within the local papers.

Advertising firms have seized upon a boom in local sales of influenza-related products. Companies are capitalizing on the public's increased interest in news reports in order to promote various, competing preventions and remedies for the disease.

"'Tis only natural," reports Mr. Robert Thompson, maker of one product claiming to aid in the fight against influenza, "that we provide the people with the critical information of how one might best guard himself or herself against the Influenza. And, it so happens that my Thompson's Pure Phenol is irrefutably the best qualified product to do so.