The Pandemic of 1918.

[twinsrwe]

Lizzie Borden lived through the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918.

(I omitted source indicators.)

The Spanish flu (Spanish: La Gripe Española), also known as the 1918 flu pandemic or La Pesadilla (Spanish for "The Nightmare"), was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a quarter of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Coromandel Hospital Board (New Zealand) advice to influenza sufferers (1918)

Coromandel_Hospital_Board.jpg

Source: https://tinyurl.com/y3vsagcd

Two familiar names pop up in the next article ( Highlighting and underlining are mine):

A prescient physician who correctly assumed that the Board of Health would be interested to know that influenza was now within Fall River city limits had reported the first crop of cases. On the suggestion of member Richard Borden, the Board therefore unanimously voted to make influenza a mandatory reportable disease.

Massachusetts Department of Health Director Dr. Eugene R. Kelly advised against closure orders, but other state officials – namely Governor Samuel McCall – disagreed.


Does the underlined/highlighted sections in the next paragraph sound familiar?

The Board ordered closed all public and private schools, movie houses, and theaters, banned assemblies, lectures, and other public gatherings, and requested that clergy close their churches and halt Sunday schools until the threat of the epidemic had passed. Most subsequently did. Restaurants and other places that served food or drinks were warned to keep their premises and their dishes and utensils clean. The next day, Fall River Mayor James H. Kay issued a proclamation, declaring a state of emergency in the city and endorsing the actions of the Board of Health, which now included large wakes and public funerals on the list of prohibited gatherings. The school committee met and ordered schools closed, although, given that the Board of Health had full authority in the matter, this action was superfluous. Authorities had already begun barring visitors at hospitals in an attempt to contain the epidemic, and had prohibited new admissions because of the lack of nurses, several of whom had already fallen ill. Fortunately, the Home Nursing department of the local chapter of the Red Cross was able to recruit a half-dozen nurses’ aides to work at City Hospital.

fallriver002.jpg

The B. M. C. Durfee Technical High School. The building served as an emergency hospital for influenza patients during Fall River’s epidemic.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/upg9fvw

[mbhenty]

Interesting Twins

I went to school at Durfee High. My homeroom was in the Tech Building. Information you furnished on the Kansas virus was unfamiliar to me... and the fact that they used the Tech Building in such a way.

And as some may all ready know, the first case of the Spanish Flue was here in the US. I refer to it as the Kansas Flu.

But because of WW1 propaganda and censorship by the Allied forces of the actual number of sick people, Spain was picked since it was neutral during the war and it's king, Alfonso, came down with the virus. The actual virus, as far as anyone in the day could negotiate, had its first case in Kansas on a military base. Not Spain.

The same was true with the West Nile Virus. Though the first case of West Nile was discovered in Uganda back in the 30s, the outbreak of 1999 started here in Queens.

[twinsrwe]

Wow, thank you for your interesting addition of information, MB. I was hoping you would respond to my post, since you are from Fall River, and extremely knowledgeable about it's history. I learn a tremendous amount of Fall River information from you, and I appreciate it.