Sept 9, 2020, 12:00
THE GREAT INFLUENZA
THE EPIC STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PLAGUE IN HISTORY
BY JOHN M. BARRY
A keen recounting of the 1918–20 pandemic.
This deadly global flu outbreak has gotten hazy in the public memory, and its origins and character were unclear from the beginning, writes popular historian Barry (Rising Tide, 1997, etc.). But influenza tore apart the world’s social fabric for two long years, and it would be a mistake to forget its lessons. (It also tore apart the American medical establishment—but that was for the good.) With the same terrorizing flair of Richard Preston’s Hot Zone, the author follows the disease in the way he might shadow a mugger, presenting us with the vivid aftereffects as if from Weegee’s camera: “Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.” But Barry is not interested simply in hugely disturbing numbers. He charts how the pandemic brought a measure of scientific maturity to the medical world and profiles such important personalities as Paul Lewis and William Henry Welch, institutions like Johns Hopkins, the Rockefeller Institute, and the Red Cross. He covers with an easy touch the evolution in our understanding of viral disease and the strides that have been made to counter its effects, such as vaccines. He watches the flu spread until there aren’t enough coffins to house the bodies, and he watches as the military fails to alert the general public because the brass feared it would hurt wartime morale. Influenza appears to have spread like a prairie fire from a military base in Kansas throughout the world, thanks to WWI troop deployment and the disease’s highly contagious nature. There was nowhere to hide, Barry chillingly explains: “It now seemed as if there had never been life before the epidemic. The disease informed every action of every person.” Emerging viruses, including new strains of flu, will likely visit us again.
Majestic, spellbinding treatment of a mass killer.
From Charles Salmans:
There are several recent interviews on YouTube of John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, the book we are next discussing. I have watched two of these in full.
I thought the better one was this podcast on MSNBC. It’s 46 minutes. One annoying thing: 7 ads you have to skip past.
Barry was also interviewed for 55 minutes on the Great Courses link (see below). In my opinion the interviewer is not as good, but at the 12 minute mark she asks about the similarities and differences between the 1918 flu and Covid.
In short, Barry says that the 1918 flu was a lot more lethal than what we are seeing today, but Covid 19 is a lot more contagious because you can be unaware you are a carrier. Covid 19 is stealthy.
1) In 1918 you got sick and it was obvious. In many cases people were dead within a day of showing symptoms, and sometimes in as little as 4 hours. As those of you have read the book know, it contains horrifying descriptions of people severely ill, bleeding from the eyes and ears, turning so blue their race was indeterminate.
2) Today people who are sick carry the transmittable virus for a longer period, up to 14 days, and may be asymptomatic. It is taking a much longer time for Covid 19 to move through a community, making lockdowns longer and harder to contain. In 1918 a wave swept through a community in six to ten weeks and then was gone.
What is similar:
1) Importance of informing the public and being honest. Using the war and patriotism as an excuse, there was a lot of disinformation and denial in 1918. There continues to be denial today from the White House and some Governors. Today if we can achieve vigorous testing and contact tracing, we can control Covid 19, but we seem still to struggle with as effective a response as in some other countries.
2) In 1918 they recognized the importance of social distancing, just as we do now. In that regard, at least so far, that’s the most effective means of disease control. So nothing has changed in 100 years!
Here’s the interview in which John Barry compares the 1918 pandemic to Covid 19 (12 minutes into this 55 minute interview).
From Bert:
A Warning for the United States From the Author of ‘The Great Influenza
