Survived Two Pandemics a Century Apart: Anna & Helen

From March 23, 2021, ListVerse "Top 10 Luckiest Unlucky  People Whose Luck Nearly Killed Them" by Jonathan H. Kantor,

 As we all know now, surviving a pandemic is no walk in the park.  Well, how about surviving two of them, a century apart?  Getting infected can be deadly.  It certainly was with the influenza strain A/H1N1 that devastated the world between 1918 and 1920.

The Spanish flu killed  some 20-100 million people, thanks to the fast spread and speed  at which the virus killed infected people.

Two people who were infected back then and managed to survive that first pandemic were Anna del Priorie and her sister Helen, who were young children in that first one.  

While they weren't the only ones to survive that one,  they are among a small group to survive both of them.  Anna and Helen  were 105 & 107 years old respectively when they were infected by COVID-19.  Despite their advanced age the second time they both managed to beat the odds and survive a second time.

--Cooter

Six WW II Innovations That Changed Everyday Life-- Part 1

From April 26, 2021, History site by Becky Little.

Of course, everyone knows about atomic energy and the atom bomb which came out of the war, but there were other developments as well.  Some of these innovations date from before the war, but were able to take off because of it.

1.  FLU VACCINES

The influenza pandemic of WW I motivated the U.S. military to develop the first flu vaccine.  Scientists began to isolate the flu viruses in the 1930s and in the 1940s, the U.S. Army  helped sponsor a vaccine against them.

The U.S. approved the first vaccine for military use in 1945 and for civilian use in 1946.  One of the researchers on this project was Dr. Jonas Salk, the scientist who would later develop the vaccine used to defeat polio.

2.  PENICILLIN

Before the widespread development of antibiotics like penicillin in the U.S., even small cuts or scrapes could lead to deadly infections.  The Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but it wasn't  until WW II that the U.S. began to produce mass amounts as a medical treatment.

Military surgeons were  amazed at how much the drug reduced pain, increased chances of survival.  The drug was considered so vital to the war effort, that the Allies produced 2.3 million doses of penicillin for the troops to prepare for the D-Day landings.

--GreGen

Pandemic Won't Slow Down Uecker

From the July 24, 2020, Chicago Tribune by Steve Megargee, AP.

Last season was Bob Uecker's 50th in the Brewer's broadcast booth.

And, he was facing his biggest challenge during that time, the pandemic.  He broadcast the 2020 season's games at Miller Field, home of the Brewers and that included the road games which he watched on a monitor.

The 86-year-old announcer came back for his 50th season and 65th in baseball overall, including a six-year playing career with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies from 1962 to 1967.  (Totals:   Batting average:  .200, 14 home runs, 74 RBI.  Not exactly what you'd call amazing.)

But, he made fun of this.  And, then there were those great commercials.  Ever since April 2014, there has been a statue of Bob Uecker in the back row of Miller Field's nosebleed seats  in homage to his 1980s Lite Beer  commercial where he arrived at the park and says, "I must be in the front row."

Of course, I always enjoy it when he is at Wrigley Field and they have him do the 7th inning stretch "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and he always, I mean always yells "And it's root, root, root for the Brewers."  Looks like the Cub front office would be aware of that bit of sacrilege.

--CootUeck

The Spanish Flu of 1918-- Part 8: Boy, Those 'Cures'?

People tried all sorts of remedies, many of which were advertised in local newspapers and today sound atrocious as medical cures.

Menthoeze, for example, was widely sold in town and consisted of goosefat mixed with turpentine for an inhalation treatment.  Quinine tablets along with an elixir derived from opium were highly recommended for fever and pain.

A children's concoction called California Syrup of Fig was sold by local pharmacies.  Made up almost entirely of fig syrup, it also contained 25 percent Senna, an herbal laxative, as well as 6 percent alcohol.

It's a miracle that residents survived the treatments!  But the point is, they did survive and despite large numbers of lives lost, Belvidere and Boone County (Illinois) eventually conquered the virus, not through horrific syrups, but through isolation, quarantine and protection.

By October 25, 1918, cases were down to three per day with very few deaths and Belvidere Mayor W.W. Ray petitioned the State Board of Health to have restrictions eased after weeks of closure and isolation.

So, it may seem like 2020 was the worst year ever, but we have come through bad times before.

--DaCoot

The Spanish Flu 1918-- Part 6: No Spitting Allowed Here

Continued from February 6, 2021.

Well, I got tied up with some mighty interesting stories about Blacks for Black History Month.  Lots of stuff I didn't know.  I like anything dealing with history and sadly, didn't know much about the people I was writing about in February.

But since you-know-what is still with us, I will start this up again.

In Belvidere, Illinois, schools, churches and theaters were closed as the pandemic unfolded before even the state banned attendance at any public gathering effective October 18, 1918.

Once the ban took effect, funerals, weddings, lodge meetings, government meetings/councils and hospital visits were not allowed.  Also the state mandated masks for anyone in contact with the public outside of their own families.

Belvidere took even a further step by banning bonfires and any sort of outdoor burning in town to ease the suffering of the sick.  Anyone who coughed or sneezed in a Belvidere public establishment was ejected.  Spitting in public was outlawed and spitters were arrested.

--Cooter

Spanish Flu Outbreak 1918-- Part 5: Struck at Camp Grant First in the Area

The first cases to hit the northern Illinois area were identified at Camp Grant  in Rockford.  Some newspapers speculated that Boone County actually had cases of Spanish flu as early as February 1918, but local doctors misdiagnosed then as secondary effects of the scarlet fever.

By October of 1918, though, the deadly virus was everywhere.  Due to the close proximity of soldier living quarters at Camp Grant in Rockford, hundreds were admitted every day to the military hospital there.  There was a record 768 hospitalizations in one day.

There were so many deaths that officers decided not to broadcast the total number to avoid a general public panic.  Military vehicles were used as ambulances for the camp and for Winnebago and surrounding counties, including Boone.

Here in Belvidere, schools, churches and theaters were closed before the sate banned attendance at any public gatherings effective October 18, 1918.  Once the state ban took effect, funerals, weddings, lodge meetings, government meetings/councils and hospital visits were not allowed.

The state also mandated masks for anyone in contact with the public outside of their own families.

--DaCoot

The Spanish Flu Outbreak of 1918-- Part 1: Why It Was Called the Spanish Flu

From the Dec. 31, 2020, Rock Valley Publishing  "Bizarre Belvidere" by Mindy Long.

Of even more interest in these days of our own virus.  Comparisons can definitely be made between the two, some 100 years apart.

The Spanish Flu of 1918 and several years afterwards, was an H1N1 virus that primarily affected children younger than 5 and younger adults ages 20-40 and older adults over 65.  The CDC estimates that one third of the world's population became infected and more than 50 million people worldwide died of it.

The Spanish Flu did not actually originate in Spain, but that country was one of the few world countries not affected by the World War I news blackout so cases there became front page news, especially after Spain's Kong Alfonso XIII died from it.  The flu became known as the Spanish Flu then.

The virus then was spread through the air in mucous droplets from coughing, sneezing, talking loudly, laughing and spitting, much like today's coronavirus.

--Cooter

Voting in the 1918 Election: A War Winding Down and a Full-Fledged Pandemic

One hundred and two years ago on Tuesday, November 5, Americans were heading to the polls to vote.  It was not a presidential election, but stakes were high.  People were electing members of the 66th Congress.  It was also the lone election to take place during the United States' involvement in World War I (though it was winding down) and there was a full-scale pandemic going on at the time.

Campaigning was disrupted tremendously around the country as states had banned large gatherings.  Nebraska, for example, lifted a ban on public gatherings to allow campaigning five days before the election.

The president was Democrat Woodrow Wilson, but the republicans swept to control of both houses in Congress.

This was also a big election for women suffragists.

And, Now We have 2020.  --Cooter

How American Struggled to Bury Bodies During the 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 3: Boston and Philadelphia

Gravediggers at Boston's New Calvary Cemetery were spotted dumping corpses out of coffins could be used again.  The War Industries Board  ordered casket makers to manufacture only plain caskets and immediately cease production on "all fancy trimmed and couch and split panel varieties.  It limited caskets sizes for adults  to five feet, nine inches and six feet, 3 inches.

The worst horrors were seen in Philadelphia, where the number of deaths approached 1,000 a day at the pandemic's peak.  Entire neighborhoods were  draped in crepe that was mounted on front doors to mark deaths inside.

Civic leaders  recruited the J.G. Brill Company, a streetcar manufacturer, to construct thousands of  rudimentary boxes in which to bury the dead, while desperately needed coffins arrived in the city under armed guard.

Five hundred bodies crowded the city morgue, which had a capacity for only  36 corpses.    The city scrambled to open  six supplementary morgues and placed bodies in cold storage plants.  Some Philadelphia  residents were  unceremoniously tossed into mass graves  that had been hollowed out by steam shovels.

How America Struggled to Bury Bodies in 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 2: Shortages of Gravediggers and Coffins

Cemeteries struggled to keep up with the mounting death toll.  With gravediggers absent from work -- either because they had gotten the flu or were afraid they would--  grieving families were sometimes forced to  excavate graves for their loved ones.

In New Brunswick, New Jersey, 15 workhouse inmates were handed spades and shovels under the watchful eyes of guards.  In Baltimore, city employees were called into  emergency duty as gravediggers while soldiers from Fort Meade were pressed into service to bury a three-week backlog of 175 bodies at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

Casket companies, already hard-pressed to supply coffins for  the thousands of U.S. Doughboys killed overseas, could not keep up with this increased demand.  Facing a desperate shortage in the nation's capital, District of Columbia Commissioner Louis Brown hijacked two train cars filled with 270 coffins bound for Pittsburgh and rerouted it to the city hospital under armed guard.

How America Struggled to Bury the Dead in the 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 1

From the February 12, 2020, History site.

The terrifying, lethal influenza virus that swept across the world in 1918-1920,  history's deadliest pandemic, which claimed the lives of approximately 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 here in the United States.  Nearly 200,000 Americans died of it in October 1918 alone.

The sheer number of bodies overwhelmed undertakers, casket makers and grave diggers.  At the same time, a prohibition on public gatherings that included wakes and funerals compounded the grief of stricken families who could not properly mourn their deaths.

The mass mortality led to macabre scenes.  In Baltimore, the Red Cross nurses reported going to disease ravaged homes to discover sick people in bed next to the dead.  In other cases, corpses were covered with ice and left in bedroom corners where they festered for days.

Inundated  undertakers stacked coffins in funeral homes and even in their living quarters.  In New Haven, Connecticut,  six-year-old John Delano and his friends played outside a mortuary, scaling a mountain of caskets piled on a sidewalk, unaware of the contents inside them.  "We thought,  -- boy, this is great.  It's like climbing the pyramids."

--Cooter

And the Coronavirus Comes to McHenry County-- Part 6: We Get One Every 30-40 Years

A 2007 article for the National Institute of Health stated:  "Influenza pandemics have occurred regularly every 30 to 40 years since the 16th century.  Today, influenza experts consider the possibility of another influenza pandemic, not in terms of if but when."

Should we have seen the COVID-19, or its likeness, coming?  Unquestionably.

Kurt Begalka wrote in a column two years ago:  "Unlike 1918, when a flu pandemic swept across the globe, infecting a half billion people and leaving an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims in its wake, doctors know the microscopic killer is not a type of bacteria, and they know how to curtail its spread -- provided that experts divine the right preventive cocktail before next flu season.

Stay safe out there folks and do your best to use this new-found time productively.

It Was Predicted.  Now It's Here.  --Cooter

And, the Coronavirus Cometh to McHenry County in 2020-- Part 5: It's the Weather Channel Thing All Over Again

I myself was wondering whether or not we'd get hit with one of those pandemics of the past, but figured our medicine would be able to handle it now that we are in the 21st century.  I was wrong.  Perhaps, too much concentration on diabetes, cancer and the like.  But, as bad as those diseases are, something that hits and kills in the numbers of a virus is really scary.

Back to the article:

"So here we are, working from home and isolated -- for our own good-- from family and friends.  But rather than grouse about our lot, I'd save your recriminations for government officials who failed to stockpile adequate medical supplies and hospital beds for a time health experts long predicted could strike at a moment's notice."

Personally, I was operating under the Weather Channel Fix.  Anytime there is anything out on the oceans even remotely looking like a storm, they go overboard with dire warnings of possible catastrophe.  We've had Ebola and other possible pandemics pop up then go away along with dire warnings from health experts.  So, I just figured it was more of the same.

I heard about this new one in China, but was absolutely not concerned.

Reckon I Should Have Been.  --Cooter

The Spanish Flu Comes to McHenry County, Illinois, in 1918-- Part 1: All That and WW I and TB Too

From the April 15, 2020, Northwest Herald "Learning from our pandemic past" by  Kurt Begalka.

"During these unprecedented times (Okay everyone, take a sip of the bubbly as every time we have a word put together with the "time" to describe these days, you get to take a drink) it is worth remembering that the world went through something just as deadly (much more deadly) in 1918 -- perhaps even more so considering the double whammy of World War I-related injuries and prevalence of tuberculosis.

"The September 26, 1918, edition of the Woodstock (Illinois) Sentinel noted: 'The Spanish influenza is said to be beginning a visit to this country.  Most things Spanish are not to be sneezed at, but the influenza is an exception."

Soon after, the newspapers were full of reports of illness and death in every corner of McHenry County -- alongside ads for "miraculous" cures such as  'Knock-A-Cold."

--Cooter

Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 3: Cholera and Fort Dearborn

Continued from April 21, 2020.  Before I got on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  You can catch up on the first two posts by clicking on the label Chicago below this entry.

Adam Selzer is quite knowledgeable about Chicago's history and its epidemics and pandemics.  He leads guided tours of cemeteries including one of the bigger ones called Graceland.

One of the epidemics that plagues Chicago in the 1800s was that of cholera.  Multiple outbreaks took place in the city in the 19th century.  He says the first major epidemic took place in 1832 (Chicago became a city in 1837).

It was brought in on a ship by Gen. Winfield Scott who arrived in town by ship with soldiers from the Black Hawk War. Dozens died as they occupied the old Fort Dearborn and Scott later said that the disease scared him more than any enemy because there was no way to fight it; he couldn't fortify his walls against it or even offer terms of surrender.

Fort Dearborn was the site of the infamous Fort Dearborn Massacre in the War of 1812.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza Butler Co., Pa., --Part 7: Remembering the Victims

In 2002, the Saxonburg chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) spearheaded a campaign, led by Doris Herceg and Drenda Gostcowski, to designate the mass grave of the influenza victims in Winfield Township as a historic site.

They succeeded and in a ceremony at the site, Father Velerian M. Muchlik and Janet Pazzynski of St. George's Ukranian Catholic Church in Pittsburgh performed  a Greek Catholic service, respective of the victims' Eastern European heritage.

A granite cross was erected at the site to replace the original wooden cross, and a historic roadside marker was placed adjacent to the site.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.,-- Part 6: A "Forgotten Epidemic?"

The epidemic faded from public memory almost as quickly as the disease itself vanished.  The deaths of servicemen in the Great War received far more attention than the deaths caused by the influenza.

Furthermore, on November 11, 1918, the Great War, known now as World War I in the U.S. and the First World War in Britain (hey they wouldn't have known about the second one back then) which overshadowed the influenza outbreak in western Pennsylvania (well, it was also in Chicago and in much of the rest of the United States in October that year).

This was kind of like the Civil War's Sultana Disaster which took place April 27, 1865, when the steamboat Sultana blew up while carrying several thousand recently released Union prisoners.  It is regarded as the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history with at least 1,168 deaths. But it was soon forgotten what with the end of the Civil War, Lincoln Assassination and the killing of John Wilkes Booth all occurring around the same time.

The Influenza epidemic of 1918 became "The Forgotten Epidemic" until various other outbreaks in more recent history brought back the memories.

I'm not so sure it was all that forgotten, but definitely this new coronavirus we're involved with these days has brought back the memory.  I was completely unaware of how hard western Pennsylvania was hit, though, until I came across the information about the immigrant cemetery in Butler County which started this thread.

And, there is still one more entry to go.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co. Pa.-- Part 5: It lasted a Month and Abated, But A Quarter of Population Got It and Hundreds Died

Elsewhere in the county in October,the epidemic continued to sicken people.but the number of new cases began to decline sharply.  By the beginning of November, the total number of cases reported in Butler County since the beginning of the epidemic  began exceeded 7,000.  However, the number of cases statewide  had fallen so dramatically  that the department of Health lifted the month-long ban on public gatherings.

The crisis, it seems, had abated  The influenza outbreak in Butler County lasted only a month, but nearly a quarter of the population contracted the disease and several hundred died.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.,-- Part 3: Medical Help Arrives, Hotels and Tents

Already shorthanded by the war in Europe, the 1918 influenza outbreak in Butler County further depleted medical personnel, sickening nine nurses and a number of staff, and hampering their efforts to combat the disease effectively.  The Pennsylvania Department of Health sent a doctor and three nurses to help.

Meanwhile, the hospital neared full capacity and the city health board considered  requisitioning a hotel in the city as a temporary hospital.  Tents were sent to Butler so patients could receive open air treatment which seemed to improve their health.

By mid-October, however, the Butler City Health Board reported 3,000 cases since the crisis had begun, just a few weeks earlier.

I don't know about you, but this sounds all to familiar.

--Cooter

A 100-Year-Old WW II Veteran Philip Kahn Dies of COVID-19, His Twin Brother Died in the 1919 Influenza Pandemic

From the April 23, 2020, CNN  by Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, CNN.

Philip Kahn, 100, died April 17 of the COVID-19 flu.    He lost a twin brother in the 1918 epidemic a century earlier.He was the oldest WW II veteran in Nassau County, New York, and had been fearful of another pandemic striking during his lifetime.

His grandson Warren Zysman said:  "It was something he brought up quite frequently.  I would have conversations with him, he would say to me, 'I told you history repeats itself, 100 years is not that long of a period of time.' "

Kahn and his twin bother , Samuel, were born on December 5, 1919.  His brother died weeks later

The 1918 influenza pandemic , also called the Spanish Flu, killed an estimated 50 million people globally and 675,000 in the United States.  As of April 22, there were over 46,000 deaths in the United States and an estimated 19,000 in New York alone.

Mr. Kahn was a sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Force  during the war and acted as an engineer and co-pilot and received two Bronze Battle Stars.

After the war, he worked as an electric foreman and helped build the World Trade Center.

Before becoming ill, he lived on his own in Long Island and walked two miles a day.  he was aware of the coronavirus as he watched the news every day and in the last few days before his death, he started having the symptoms.  He took a test for it, but the results were not given until after his death.