Getting a Grippe

I had a bird
Its name was Enza
I opened the door
And in-flew-Enza

(Children’s song circa 1918)

The Spanish Flu (aka `the Grippe’), changed everything. Read John Barry’s book, The Great Influenza, and you will quickly grasp the enormity of what a pandemic can do. The U.S. government enacted draconian laws, in the name of national security, preventing newspapers from publishing the truth about the disease. A campaign of disinformation was begun, even as bodies were piling up on street corners, telling Americans that this was just an ordinary flu.

This decision, to keep the truth from the American people, most certainly cost many lives. Newspapers urged people not to succumb to `Spanish Hysteria’, and insisted that more people died of `worry’ than from the flu.

Towards the end of 1918, when 7,000 people a day were dying in the United States, the true scope of the pandemic was becoming obvious to everyone, despite official government denials.

Some historians argue that WWI was ended in large measure because both sides were so incapacitated by the Flu that the only option was to sign a treaty. While the horrors of mustard gas, and trench warfare cannot be overstated, it is sobering to realize that more Americans died from the flu than perished on the battlefields of Europe.

Was the Spanish Flu an aberration? A one-time event in our human history?

Sadly, no. There have been dozens of other pandemics recorded over the past 500 years. Some milder than 1918, and some every bit as virulent. But 1918 was the last bad one, and there were in place a number of factors that made it particularly bad.

First, we had hundreds of thousands of soldiers overseas and in training camps here in the United States. National security, in a time of war, was given a high priority, and so the truth was hidden from the people. And with the advent of efficient steamship travel, you could travel from Europe to America in a matter of a few days.

Sound familiar?

Today, we can travel between continents in hours, not days. We have large numbers of troops in areas of the world where Human-to-Human H5N1 is most likely to break out. And after 9/11, and given the war in Iraq, national security (and the restriction of information) is a high priority.

We have all the ingredients needed to generate the perfect viral storm. H5N1 is in the wild, it is mutating, and it has already infected a limited number of people.

Given the other contributing factors, and their eerie similarities to 1918, it’s no wonder that scientists are having trouble sleeping at night.