Philadelphia didn't cancel a parade during a 1918 pandemic. The results were devastating

[babylonsister]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/15/us/philadelphia-1918-spanish-flu-trnd/index.html

Philadelphia didn't cancel a parade during a 1918 pandemic. The results were devastating
By Leah Asmelash, CNN
Updated 12:06 PM EDT, Sun March 15, 2020


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The virus spread to Philadelphia on September 19, 1918, through the Philadelphia Navy Yard, according to information from the University of Pennsylvania Archives & Records Center. In a matter of days, 600 sailors had the virus.

Yet Philadelphia didn't cancel its Liberty Loan Parade, scheduled for just a little more than a week later. Meant to be a patriotic wartime effort, the parade went on as scheduled on September 28, bringing 200,000 Philadelphians together.

By October 1, there were 635 new cases in Philadelphia, according to UPenn.

Philadelphia was one of the hardest-hit US cities. More than 12,000 people died in six weeks, with about 47,000 reported cases, according to UPenn. By the six-month mark, about 16,000 had died and there were more than half a million cases.

The Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the CDC cites the Philadelphia parade as an example of what not to do during a pandemic. St. Louis canceled its parade while Philadelphia did not. In the end, the death toll in St. Louis did not rise above 700, according to the CDC.

"This deadly example shows the benefit of canceling mass gatherings and employing social distancing measures during pandemics," the CDC said.

In the US, about 675,000 people died of the 22 million who caught the flu.

So, as more and more US cities cancel their St. Patrick's Day parades, or other events, it may be useful to look to Philadelphia in 1918. If this even shows us anything, it's that these cancellations can save lives.

[BigmanPigman]

1. China canceled Chinese New Year and Venice canceled Carnival.

We must do the same.

Phila had to find places to bury people it was so bad in 1918. We do NOT want a repeat of that, in any city.

[Hekate]

2. Kick