The forgotten pandemic of 1918

Many people I know as well as my own family got hit with the flu for the holidays.  Type A has been the culprit and is the strain that caused the pandemic known as “The Spanish Flu” in 1918.  Back in the day, children wore bags of camphor around their necks and sang a jup rope song, “I had a little bird, her name was Enza, I opened up the door, and in flew Enza!  

As the Great War raged across Europe, a deadlier enemy was mobilizing in the shadows. From 1918 to 1919, a catastrophic strain of influenza swept the globe, infecting an estimated 500 million people—one-third of the world’s population. By the time the “Spanish Flu” finished its march in 1920, it had claimed up to 50 million lives, making it the deadliest pandemic in human history and claiming more American lives than the battlefields of World War I.

Despite its name, the virus likely didn’t originate in Spain. Early cases were reported in Kansas and across Europe. However, because Spain remained neutral during the war, its press was not subject to the strict wartime censorship of combatant nations. While the rest of the world suppressed news of the outbreak to maintain morale, Spanish newspapers reported on it freely. Consequently, the world dubbed the affliction the “Spanish Flu,” while the Spanish—convinced it came from their neighbors—called it the “French Flu.”

The pandemic began with a deceptive whisper in the spring of 1918, manifesting as a mild illness. But by autumn, the virus mutated into a killer. This second wave was uniquely terrifying; it didn’t just target the elderly or the young, but struck down healthy adults in the prime of their lives.

Victims often died within hours. As their lungs filled with fluid, their skin would turn blue from a lack of oxygen—a literal suffocation on dry land. In the United States, the devastation was so profound that the national life expectancy plummeted by 12 years in just twelve months.

With no vaccine available, American cities were forced to improvise. The results were a stark lesson in public health:

• Philadelphia: Despite warnings, the city held a massive “Liberty Loan” parade in September 1918. Within ten days, 1,000 citizens were dead. By the end of the crisis, the death toll topped 15,000.
• St. Louis: Taking a proactive stance, officials shuttered schools, theaters, and churches immediately. Their peak mortality rate was just one-eighth of Philadelphia’s.
• San Francisco: Authorities took a hard line on masking, fining citizens $5—a hefty sum at the time—for appearing in public without a face covering.

Doctors of the era were largely powerless. Some turned to “old-wives’ methods” like hanging bags of camphor around children’s necks, while others prescribed massive doses of aspirin—up to 30 grams a day. Modern researchers now believe many deaths were actually hastened by aspirin poisoning, as these toxic levels caused the very pulmonary edema doctors were trying to treat.

By the summer of 1919, the virus finally began to recede as populations developed immunity. It left behind a world of orphans, widows, and a crippled economy. Businesses had shuttered, crops rotted in fields, and even the mail stopped as workers fell ill.

While later pandemics—including the 1957 Asian flu and the COVID-19 crisis—reminded the world of our vulnerability, the 1918 outbreak remains the benchmark for global catastrophe. It was the “forgotten pandemic” that changed the world forever, proving that sometimes the smallest organisms are the most formidable enemies.  Stay safe out there so you can keep coming to the estate sales, thrift stores and antique shops!