Spanish flu ultimately killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 across the United States, including 8,459 people in Wisconsin. The headline of the Oct. 10, 1918 Wisconsin State Journal proclaims that there were 1,000 cases of the Spanish flu in Madison and that all public gatherings were banned. The story goes on to say that all schools, colleges, churches and theaters were closed indefinitely under an order by Dr. Cornelius A. Harper, the state health officer. Some of the larger American cities, such as Boston and New York City, founded school health teams who made daily rounds through the public schools to determine the health status of individual children and entire classrooms. Children, especially those under the age of 12, appear far less likely to contract and spread the virus.

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Businesses were permitted to reopen on November 13 and schools opened on November 14. Flu cases continued to decline for the next two weeks but then began to climb sharply. The city closed schools again and reinstated a ban on all public gatherings. The second peak in cases—with a higher excess mortality rate than the first peak—was reached in December.

Individual investor circumstances vary significantly, and information gleaned from my articles should be applied to your own unique investment situation, objectives, risk tolerance, and investment horizon. There are a myriad of differences between the experience in 2020 and the performance of stocks over 100 years ago. The other big global event of 1918 was the culmination of World War I. When the war had broken out in the summer of 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, shockwaves from Europe rippled through the American business community. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged in late 1914, and the New York Stock Exchange was suspended for three months before opening sharply lower as pictured below.

The 1918 Spanish Flu And Stocks

A century before the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, dominated the global consciousness, another deadly virus rampaged across the world. Seven-hundred and six cases of influenza and 67 deaths are reported in New York City, triggering fear of a recurrence of severe flu activity. In San Francisco, 1,800 flu cases and 101 deaths are reported in first five days of January.

Two days later, the city shut down most public gatherings and quarantined victims in their homes. By the end of the pandemic, between 50 and 100 million people were dead worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans — but the death rate in St. Louis was less than half of the rate in Philadelphia. The deaths due to the virus were estimated to be about 385 people per 100,000 in St prison talk website Louis, compared to 807 per 100,000 in Philadelphia during the first six months — the deadliest period — of the pandemic. I have extensively read about the pandemic, and its devastating effect on people. I must admit that I am appalled at the refusal to use trained nurses because they were Black Americans. That nonsense was part of the failure to help people in need of care at this crucial time .

Analysis: Why Some Schools Stayed Open During The 1918 Flu Pandemic

This is important stuff; people need to take influenza seriously. As the numbers of sick rose, the Red Cross put out desperate calls for trained nurses as well as untrained volunteers to help at emergency centers. In October of 1918, Congress approved a $1 million budget for the U. S. Public Health Service to recruit 1,000 medical doctors and more than 700 registered nurses.

Keep The Church In School

People were still afraid to frequent bars and restaurants and mostly stayed confined to their homes whenever possible, Draper said. A look at the 20 Dow Jones Industrial Average components from 1918 highlights how much the economy has evolved in the century hence. Framing the current viral outbreak versus historic pandemics may provide some measure of insight. They attacked societal barriers to child health and welfare by enacting child labor laws, making school attendance compulsory and improving the tenement housing where millions of children lived. Reformers of the period, known as the Progressive Era, took that notion to heart.

Indianapolis issued an order providing for “the universal use of cloth masks in all public places” before the decision was made to close down businesses. Even then, it was clear in some quarters that masks were a half-measure that accomplished little. We have come a long way in treatment protocols and diagnostic advancements with respect to infectious diseases. The major concern,at this time, is an unknown pathogen which will be quickly spread worldwide my international jet travel.

The restaurants will be open but the city health authorities urge that only people who have no other way of getting their meals today, patronize them,” read the Miami Heraldon October 13th, 1918. For years, centuries even, we took restaurants for granted; it is news to most people that they had to be invented . As a child, it made sense to me that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone—as we learned in school, “progress” meant currently familiar technologies had all started at some point in the past.

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I must say it was hateful and ignorant of White Americans. White Americans are not reminded enough that they are immigrants to America just like any other race that came to this country from another country. I don’t believe sick people care who is attending to them when they are on the brink of death.