Opinion: Analysis of the 1918 Spanish Flu and similarities to COVID-19
‘Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’
How many times have we heard this phrase and dismissed it? Yet, today it comes back to haunt us. A global pandemic infected and killed millions while major leaders diverted attention from it to pursue their own political interests. Leaders failed to take into account public health concerns and not only allowed but held large public gatherings to encourage the agenda of the federal government. Bodies piled up and the dead were robbed of their dignity. The sad truth is, this isn’t about COVID-19. This is the story of the 1918 Spanish Flu. There are undeniable parallels between COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu that should be cause for concern to each and every one of us.
While it is instinctive to dismiss the similarities between COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu on the grounds that the Spanish Flu occurred nearly a century ago and nations were nowhere near as interdependent as they are today, there was one factor that ensured a global pandemic even back then: World War 1. With soldiers travelling across battlefields and borders on a regular basis and the high dependence on foreign imports for survival, it is no wonder that in merely 2 years, 500 million people had been infected by the flu. The magnitude of the COVID-19 outbreak can also be attributed to the mass movement of millions across the world, although for different purposes than a century ago.
Another crucial aspect that contributed to the outbreak in 1918 and that can be seen again today was the lack of coordinated federal response in numerous countries.
The US President Woodrow Wilson never publicly acknowledged the virus, instead choosing to keep the nation’s attention on the war effort and boosting American morale. Similarly, President Donald Trump did not prioritize the virus for weeks and when asked about it by the media in late February, stated that American cases would be ‘down to zero’. Comparably, in 1918, the federal government’s focus on the war effort led local leaders to hold the largest parade in Pennsylvania’s history. With no precautions and distancing measures, the virus spread rapidly, infecting dozens of attendees. There is somewhat of a comparison that can be drawn with the rally held in Tulsa, Oklahoma for President Trump’s reelection campaign. Three weeks after the rally, Oklahoma public health officials have reported a record high in their state’s cases. The two viruses also infected top government officials that had failed to take adequate action against them. In 1918, it was Woodrow Wilson and former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and now, it is the current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Pandemics often tend to cause an uptick in the cases of bigotry and racism across the world.
While in 1918, many blamed Germans for the spread of the Spanish Flu, today, the blame is collectively dropped on Asians, irrespective of their nationality or background. This could be because a pandemic is essentially an invisible enemy. During a war, the public knows who to blame for their suffering, who to direct their anger towards and who they have to fight against. Viruses do not mobilize the same kind of public outrage on their own. Thus, a ‘visible enemy’ is needed, someone people can blame for the virus, however irrational it may be. However, this has been and still is counterproductive. Members of the targeted community try to hide the fact that they have been infected and avoid seeking treatment, which encourages community transmission and could seriously harm the individual.
There are, of course, differences between the two viruses especially from a medical perspective. However, the aim of this piece is to point out that one similarity is one too many. Ignoring our past makes all of our current situations worse. So much pain, death and suffering could have been avoided if people simply opened their history textbooks and read them! History gives us an opportunity to learn from our past mistakes. It would be great if someone actually took it.
