Will We EVER LEARN? 1918 Philadelphia Threw a WWI Parade That Gave 1000s of Onlookers the Flu

[kpete]

https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/zWr3ZVOpHltHZ5vYUCHtT0ONkHc=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/
The city sought to sell bonds to pay for the war effort, while bringing its citizens together during the infamous pandemic


In the summer of 1918, as the Great War raged and American doughboys fell on Europe’s killing fields, the City of Brotherly Love organized a grand spectacle. To bolster morale and support the war effort, a procession for the ages brought together marching bands, Boy Scouts, women’s auxiliaries, and uniformed troops to promote Liberty Loans –government bonds issued to pay for the war. The day would be capped off with a concert led by the “March King” himself –John Philip Sousa.

When the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive parade stepped off on September 28, some 200,000 people jammed Broad Street, cheering wildly as the line of marchers stretched for two miles. Floats showcased the latest addition to America’s arsenal – floating biplanes built in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard. Brassy tunes filled the air along a route where spectators were crushed together like sardines in a can. Each time the music stopped, bond salesmen singled out war widows in the crowd, a move designed to evoke sympathy and ensure that Philadelphia met its Liberty Loan quota.

For Philadelphia, the fallout was swift and deadly. Two days after the parade, the city’s public health director Wilmer Krusen, issued a grim pronouncement: “The epidemic is now present in the civilian population and is assuming the type found in naval stations and cantonments [army camps].”

Within 72 hours of the parade, every bed in Philadelphia’s 31 hospitals was filled. In the week ending October 5, some 2,600 people in Philadelphia had died from the flu or its complications. A week later, that number rose to more than 4,500. With many of the city’s health professionals pressed into military service, Philadelphia was unprepared for this deluge of death.


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[crickets]

1. Protesters are now doing this voluntarily, albeit on a smaller scale.

The results will be the same. People are going to die.

[Cha]

2. KR!

[elleng]

3. 'WE' stopped learning about history a long time ago.

[handmade34]

4. why do Republicans

refer to it as the 1917 Flu? seriously, I don't know

[orleans]

10. because trump started saying it because his dipshit brain

was remembering a fucking MOVIE called 1917, and then all his cult members have to quote their god--including someone (i forget who) on one of the sunday morning news shows last week

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_(2019_film)

[Blue Owl]

5. A fucking CENTURY ago...

Don Corona's is dialing back the stupid over 100 years...

[BigmanPigman]

6. The difference is that the 1918 flu

hit all those people within 3 days. One week after that parade 2,500 were dead from it. Covid is not that deadly and people are asymptomatic longer, therefore spreading it to more people. The 1918 flu came in fast and hit hard...BAM! Then it left almost as quickly after everyone that could get infected did.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/100-years-ago-spanish-flu-philadelphia-killed-thousands-influenza-epidemic-libery-loan-parade/

[Baclava]

7. There were a lot of differences, it hit the young and healthy hardest and killed em quickly, in days

Watch the PBS special, American Experience, 1918 influenza

[BigmanPigman]

8. I did watch that about 3 weeks ago.

The article about Phila is long but good. I was surprised to hear from my mom, who did the family's genealogy, that non of our relatives died since my mom's and my dad's families were all over Phila at the time.

Pregnant women really were nailed when it hit, probably a cytokine "storm" is what did it.

[Baclava]

11. I watched it a couple times, really chilling, govt ignored it from the start, refused to believe it

Every kind of snake oil cure was hawked, masks didn't work, nothing they tried could stop it.

Finally burned through every population worldwide then disappeared. They said it started in army camp in Kansas, they took it with them to Europe in WW I, then brought it back much more deadly and it spread like wildfire, young men getting sick and dropping and dying in 24 hrs

[BigmanPigman]

12. It accomplished one thing...

No more public spitting and spittoons. Yuk!

[UTUSN]

9. K&R