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(113,213 posts)FreeState
(10,570 posts)Link to tweet
?s=20
Tim Mak
@timkmak
Oops obviously I meant Sept 1918 here in the first tweet
11:55 AM · Apr 19, 2020·Twitter Web App
niyad
(113,213 posts)OneBro
(1,159 posts)I havent had coffee yet, so my apologies if you were kidding. 😊
dalton99a
(81,426 posts)Denver data:
raging moderate
(4,296 posts)This should be posted on walls and fences and lamp posts and freeway overheads!
demmiblue
(36,834 posts)THREAD - History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes: a thread about the **Anti-Mask League** of 1919.
I'm not kidding I went HAM researching this
So, starting in Sept 2018 San Francisco suffered from Spanish Flu pandemic.
Initial mask wearing was good -- around 80 percent
By November cases were down, and public health officials recommended re-opening the city.
Residents rushed to entertainment venues after having been denied this communal joy for months. The Mayor himself was fined by his own police chief after going to a show without a mask.
But a second wave surged in Dec 1918, and SF's Health Officer again urged people to wear masks voluntarily
Left to their own devices, most citizens - by one count 90 % - refused to wear masks. Businesses, concerned about Christmas sales, opposed. So did Culinary Workers union
San Francisco residents were fed up. This was the second wave of the pandemic, and they had already spent months between Sept and Nov being hassled, fined and even arrested for not having a mask on. Challenges of constitutionality were heard.
Christian Scientists objected, arguing that it was "subversive of personal liberty and constitutional rights." Civil libertarians argued that if health officials could force them to wear masks, then it could force them to inoculate "or any experiment or indignity."
The San Francisco Chronicle turned against the notion of mandatory masks.
Was the death rate high enough to justify remasking?
Wasn't this just the return of normal seasonal colds?
How much was this due to a public 'scare' and hype?
An op-ed ran in the local paper w/headline Whats The Use? after a man got sick despite following public health guidelines. A promised vaccine turned out to be bogus
100s of citizens congregated on Dec 16 to debate a masking order.
On Dec. 18 someone had sent what appeared to be an improvised explosive device to San Francisco's public health official signed, 'Compliments from John.' (!!!)
The story via historian Alfred W. Crosby:
San Franciscos Public Health Officer stuck by his guns, refusing to back down, and saying there was evidence that masks helped!
He implored the public to look to the data! Wear masks! They help!
More via Crosby:
But the public declined to listen to SF's Public Health Officer.
On Dec 19, officials voted down a mandatory mask order.
The dollar sign is exalted above the health sign," sighed the public health officer.
By far the worst day of flu/pneumonia deaths followed on Dec 30
Flu got worse in San Francisco when masking was voluntary.
A representative of organized labor relented: "It is of no time to quibble over the worth of the mask. It is the best thing we have found to date, and if you have anything better, for God's sake, give it to us."
So on Jan 10, 1919 local officials voted to approve a new mandatory mask order after 600 new cases were reported that day.
Citizens were arrested/fined for not having masks on, but widespread disobedience of the order continue & large numbers of citizens refused to wear masks.
Protests continued:
Over 2,000 people attended an event formed by San Franciscans called themselves 'THE ANTI-MASK LEAGUE,' denouncing the mandatory masking ordinance
The gathering was of "public spirited citizens, skeptical physicians and fanatics," writes historian Crosby
Moderates in the Anti-Mask League wanted to circulate an anti-mask petition. Extremists wanted to initiate recall proceedings of SF's Public Health Officer.
Chaos broke out until someone shouted, "I rented this hall and now I'm going to turn out the lights." (Mak note: lol)
The San Francisco Public Health Officer was a man named Dr. William C. Hassler.
Think of him as the 1919 Dr. Fauci.
Ignored by those who didn't want to believe the data, threatened with violence, Hassler was conscientious and performed his job with distinction
I havent read anything about how many people became sick DUE to the Anti-Mask League event, where 1000s gathered to protest without masks.
So we may not know how many people, if any, became sick due to this congregation
But safe to say it was not helpful during pandemic
On Jan 17, the day the masking ordinance went into effect, the # of new cases/deaths declined, the first decline in quite some time.
This continued until the epidemic faded, a signal that the mask ordinance had helped wipe out the Spanish Flu in San Francisco
Of course, the SF Public Health Officer -- the 1919 version of Dr. Fauci, got no credit for the decline in influenza cases.
People continued to gripe about the masking even after the pandemic had been stalled by it
No one seemed to credit masking for the success of blunting the Spanish Flu in San Francisco -- because, well, the crisis faded due to its success
"Rarely has the evidence in support of a scientific hypothesis been more overwhelming and more deceiving," writes historian Crosby
Ultimately San Francisco was one of the American cities hardest hit by the Spanish Flu.
673 per 100,000 people died during the pandemic due to influenza and pneumonia, per U of Michigan.
50K cases total and 3,500 were killed, per Crosby.
PHOTO: Masks being worn by players during a baseball game, in newspaper Mar 1, 1919 via The Independent
books.google.com/books?id=1Vusi
The 1918/1919 protests against mask wearing and other public health measures have parallels to today
We learn through this episode that various groups of Americans have been pushing back against public health measures for more than a hundred years -- and for similar reasons!!
In learning about the Anti-Mask League of 1919, we see many of the same human elements as today:
a portion of the population resistant to the measures; a business community crying out for relief; a second wave after an initial loosening; threats to public health officials
This is essentially a report that I pieced together by reading sources after getting curious about the 1919 Anti-Mask League. Any mistakes are my own.
I started by drafting a few tweets and then spent an hour and a half researching it last night. One thing led to another...
SOURCES:
The University of Michigan's Influenza Encyclopedia
The San Francisco Chronicles archives
America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W. Crosby
American Pandemic by Nancy Bristow
/END THREAD
Oops obviously I meant Sept 1918 here in the first tweet
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1251936242834563073.html
DBoon
(22,353 posts)Using twitter for an article like is is like trying to write a Russian novel using a bunch of postcards
nolabear
(41,958 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)DBoon
(22,353 posts)Twitter was never meant for lengthy articles. It was meant for 144 character quick snippets.
Blogs are the appropriate media for articles like this.
Sorry you think using the best media for communication causes you anguish and suffering. Your life will get better.
Really it will.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)as Twitter reaches. It can be both, though
muriel_volestrangler
(101,295 posts)Sorry about that.
niyad
(113,213 posts)nolabear
(41,958 posts)nolabear
(41,958 posts)demmiblue
(36,834 posts)I always look for the thread reader link ( to it's creator), although the last few days it seems to be having some problems.
nolabear
(41,958 posts)demmiblue
(36,834 posts)I know it has happened before. Hopefully, the issue will get resolved.
I only found the link by digging through the responses.
Amaryllis
(9,524 posts)underpants
(182,730 posts)Yaaay Me!
niyad
(113,213 posts)underpants
(182,730 posts)tanyev
(42,541 posts)And even now, after so many advances in science, medicine, technology and communications, ignorance still attracts so many.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)Assholes then, assholes now.
My grandfathers brother died from the Spanish flu in 1919. He supposedly had an incredible fastball and captured the interest of a Cincinnati Reds scout, but became ill and died soon thereafter.
If he was playing baseball, he probably wasnt social-distancing. Grandpa is long dead (when I was a kid), so cant ask him.
Edit: It just now struck me that maybe he caught it from the scout! Who knows?
bucolic_frolic
(43,115 posts)2naSalit
(86,502 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,168 posts)This should be made into a news show production.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,851 posts)For some, wearing a mask was simply a nuisance, and if they believed they could get away without donning one in public they tried. Others may simply have been among those unfortunate enough to be caught during a momentary lapse or when they thought no one would notice. This was especially the case for commuters who passed through San Francisco, many of whom were caught with their masks dangling from their chins while they enjoyed a morning pipe on the ferry. One such gentleman, caught by police, explained that he was a director of the Crocker-Woolworth Bank, and I have to hurry up to open the vault. To ensure that there could be no excuses, the Red Cross set up a stand at the ferry terminal to sell masks to those who did not have them for their commute. Most of these cases were dismissed with a stern reprimand and a promise by the offender to be more vigilant in the future.
While most residents caught without a mask were simply forgetful or minor transgressors, some harbored deep resentment over being forced to wear a mask while in public and made it a point to scoff the law. One woman, a downtown attorney, argued to Mayor Rolph that the mask ordinance was absolutely unconstitutional because it was not legally enacted, and that as a result every police officer who had arrested a mask scofflaw was personally liable.
https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-sanfrancisco.html#
17th & 18th paragraphs.
appalachiablue
(41,113 posts)because they aren't wearing masks. Spanish Flu, 1918.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
ananda
(28,856 posts)Thanks for posting.