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As we are living through a world-wide pandemic today, so were the people living in 1918. What is often called the Great Influenza struck the nation, and the world, briefly in the Spring of 1918, and returned with a vengeance in the early Fall. In all, between 50 million and 100 million people died worldwide as a result of the flu, with both the old and the young as its victims. In fact, except for children under five years old, the death rates were highest for people between age 25 and 50.
Many of the nation's earliest victims were soldiers sent to training camps for the war. (It is believed by some experts that Ground Zero for the 1918 outbreak was in Kansas, probably spreading to a military base there.) The high concentration of soldiers on bases and in transport to battle zones allowed the virus to travel at great speed. And soldiers returning home often unknowingly brought the influenza with them.
Sandusky and Erie County faced a large outbreak, responding in many ways that our similar to our response today. Many events were cancelled and businesses were ordered to close; some that could stay open were under strict rules regarding personal contact. A temporary emergency hospital was opened in the newly constructed Elks Lodge on Adams Street.
The exact number of Erie County residents who died from the flu in 1918-19 is uncertain, but it was at least in the hundreds. The influenza hospital operated for about two months, serving 95 patients with 19 deaths (a mortality rate of 20%). By the Summer of 1919, about 32,000 Ohioans died from influenza, about 25,000 more than would have been expected. Nationally, about 675,000 Americans died from the Great Influenza.
Of course, we hope the current pandemic will not compare to 1918, but we will need to be vigilant. To keep abreast with the Coronavirus in Ohio, follow https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/.
1 comment:
While doing geneology research on my wife's Connecticut ancestors, I learned that four young cousins of my wife's mother (Who was 18 at the time) died in the month of Oct, 1918. [They lived in New Britain CT, which is not far from Bristol CT, the town from which many employees in that town's New Departure plant moved to Sandusky in 1947 when N.D. opened its plant on Prkins Ave.] One of the cousins who died in the epidemic was a 28-year old doctor who had just started a medical practice and was giving physical exams to Army draftees. He passed away only 8 days after contracting the flu. He was survived by his wife and 2-month old son, who grew up to graduate from the Naval Academy and was at Pearl Harbor. Near the final days of WW II, and only 3 weeks after taking command of a destroyer in 1945, he lost his life when his ship was blown up off the coast of Okinawa.
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