The Spanish Flu was one of my Grandfathers first memories. He was born 1914 and the end of the war/Flu were his first vivid memories. He lost a older sister when he was 14 of "Consumption" and he carried TB scars on his lungs; lived to almost 96 and was by all accounts a "good fella". Miss you, Grandpa.
My great-grandmother and her young baby died in this. She left behind a husband and six children. My grandmother was the oldest, she used to talk about how their lives were impacted by this epidemic. Another great episode, thanks.
My mom was born in 1907 in Elmira NY. she and here 7 sisters, two maiden aunts, the cook and her child stayed inside their large home during Spanish Flue. Her mom had already passed on years before. Grandfather owned a hotel with two saloons he operated. He would stay at the hotel and had groceries delivered to his family. They had to be left on the back porch with no physical contact between the cook and the delivery man. Grandfather would talk to the family through shut windows. They lived that way until no one in town was getting infected anymore. Grandfather survived to come home and hug his daughters again.
My grandmother was a 2nd year nursing student in Massachusetts when the outbreak hit a few weeks into the term. They turned the nursing school into a field hospital with hundreds of tents housing thousands of patients. She was an avid photographer and took thousands of photos which I now have archived. One shows a sign reminding everyone to keep their masks on, wash their hands frequently and remain 6 feet apart at all times. Grandma was a prophet.
@@nunyabiznez6381 Wonderful story. I recall recently reading that the survival of patients during the Spanish Flu was in part dependent upon the existence and quality of nursing care. Your grandmother's patients were indeed lucky to be served by a nursing school.
You have to love someone who can unself-consciously toss out a word like "recrudescence" and who thinks highly enough of his audience that he presumes they'll know what it means.
Recrudescence: the recurrence of an undesirable condition. Good when words like this are used. The curious will educate themselves and the lazy won’t. Oh well 🤷🏻♂️
I believe it's a quality of a good educator--to elevate an audience's knowledge without sounding high and mighty about it. And in this case, he structured the sentence in such a way that there were enough context clues to understand meaning--even if most of us never heard that word before. I had a couple of history teachers I really enjoyed, but never one who made me want to go look up some previously unknown vocabulary word on my own--kudos, THG!
I laughed the other day when a local health official was on the radio and stated "we beat the Spanish flu". We didn't beat it we survived it...big difference.
The Spanish flu of 1918 killed more than five times as many Americans than died in WWI. While my grandfather was in France fighting Germans my Grandmother was a nurse in Massachusetts and she saw more dead in a day than he saw in the entire war. 5% of the population got the flu and 0.6% died as a result numbering over 650,000 dead and that number is ten times the current death told from COVID 19 but as little as officials are taking this seriously don't be shocked if COVID 19 breaks the Spanish flu record as worst pandemic in modern times tough neither compare to the 25 million dead from the Black Death in medieval times.
The Spanish flu also killed Lenin's right hand man. That may have had some of the biggest long term historical consequences. His replacement was Joseph Stalin
President Woodrow Wilson was negotiating in Versailles at the end of WWI contracted the flu, running a fever of 103-105 and had terrible coughing fits. After the fever broke he returned to the peace talks but was a changed man in the eyes of those who were with him. He tired easily and quickly lost focus and patience exhibiting signs of someone who had suffered from a type of neurological disorder. The man who once appeared to the only one capable of negotiating a lasting peace was then only able to achieve some of his specific goals but was unable or unwilling to articulate a broader vision for a better world. Over the next crucial weeks, Wilson lost his best chance to win the peace by agreeing in principle to draconian terms favored by France. The final settlement punished Germany with a formal admission of guilt, enormous reparations and the loss of about 10 percent of its territory. We all know what resulted from that mistake when Hitler and the Nazis rose to power.
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 Just had to go there and cause division didn't you. I seem to remember media and opposition party angry at him and mocking him for closing travel from China, wonder how many American lives that saved?
@@deanfirnatine7814 Everything that trump has done since taking Office amounts to NOTHING other than division, chaos, confusion, animosity and general pandemonium. He's incapable, inept, and INSANE. And come November he'll be GONE! 😄💙🇺🇸
Lando Calrissian >> Hong Kong is in most respects still its own polity-oddly enough. Hence the protests. And they closed their border with the rest of China early on in the pandemic. So it was comparatively quite safe to continue flights from Hong Kong. It’s remarkable to me that many people don’t realize everything Trump does is calculated, often for effect.
In many ways, it is hard for modern people living in First World countries to conceive of a pandemic sweeping around the world and killing millions of people, and it is even harder to believe that something as common as influenza could cause such widespread illness and death. ― Charles River Editors, The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic: The History and Legacy of the World’s Deadliest Influenza Outbreak
It has truly been surreal. I have found myself thinking "I can't believe it." Our vast medical knowledge and we are all but defenseless. Sad history in the making currently. No doubt lights will shine as examples of humanity's finest surge ahead. Thank you. May history remember you well.
@Richard McCaig your right the government knew from the start that this was just a new strain of flu. It is not even comparable to the 1918 pandemic. It's in no way a pandemic if it was there would be a lot more people dead, millions around the world. They'd have the military out collecting bodies instead of trampling on people's rights.!
@@thebigdog2295 The current mortality rate for the 30 million plus known flu cases on the US is about .01. The current mortality rate for COVID 19 is about 3 percent for known cases. If 30 million people had had COVID 19 even at half the current mortality rate is about 450,000 dead just on the US. It is not the people on general the government is worried about. It is the infrastructure of the medical community. Losing too many doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. Overwhelming hospitals and care facilities that would then be unable treat injuries, trauma patients etc. Governments want you and I at work paying taxes to line their pockets. You really think the governments turned off their economies with out a dang good reason? You really think that President Trump would turn off such a great economy. He was not going to, then he did. What changed his mind? Nothing ever has before. What is different?
Amazing how they don't actually teach history anymore, I remember learning about how the various plagues shaped politics and social order and about the Spanish Flu. Had a good first hand source, my grandmother, who was 12 in 1918 and lost two of her brothers from it... I'm so grateful to have spent decades talking to her about that, the 20's the depression and so much more. She was the one who spawned my love of history and genealogy. She made it come alive and not a boring routine of memorizing dates.
My grandmother was 11 in 1918. The one thing that most stuck out to her was how many houses had a quarantine sign on them. No one in her family got sick, But they were concerned. I can now say I know how they all must have felt. Stay safe everyone.
When I was a teen I remember two relatives that had been in the Army during WWI telling of their flu experiences. One was stateside on the West Coast when the Spanish Flu struck while the other was in France. The stateside relative was hospitalized in San Francisco. The Army was overwhelmed and civilian ladies from San Francisco volunteered to assist the Army for care of the sick. This relative was so weak that it t took him three or four days to write his mother a letter. He had to make sure his handwriting did not make her think he was sick, but in "good health". The relative in France was obviously neglected due to the numbers of sick the Army had to deal with. A friend of his from his home town, serving with him in France had received Army permission to leave his unit and check on his friend. The relative advised he was too weak to care for himself and was probably in and out of consciousness. All he remembered was being shaken by his friend when the friend found him in the hospital. The relative advised that when he was awakened that all he remembered was that his buddy was crying. The buddy helped sit him up in the bed, washed his face and gave him a shave. He said that had that friend not found him he likely would have died. Needless to say that they were lifelong friends after that.
The very reason I believe removal of statues and such because the people weren't good is a bad thing. History us both good and bad and both sides must be remembered
Actually and historically.. it's not that bad.. deaths to population ratio wise. Then again what does a layman know.. if they would have had Facebook in 1916-1919 about this...
I lost an Aunt to the flu in Philadelphia. She months died before my father, her brother, was born. I did not understand why he could not tell me anything about her when I was young. I was a teenager before I discovered her date of death on her tombstone. Because of this experience, I have had a lifelong interest in public health actions. As such, I have to tell you that in all cases, it is better to overreact than to wait and do nothing. Or worse, to deny or obfuscate the truth. The mayor of Philadelphia was warned about not allowing the parade to proceed. He chose to ignore it, even though he was given enough evidence from his own advisors that there was an illness in the city that was overcrowding the doctors’ offices before the mayor made his decision. The mayor chose to “lock the barn door after the horse was stolen.”
@mad ass I was wondering how long it was going to take for the Tin Foil Hat crowd to check in. Let me ax you a question, mad cow ass hat, Were you able to push your head up your ass or did you need help? Also, how did you end up on this channel? I thought you people received all your information from L. Ron.
@@waynejedynak9443 It's actually a Rorchach symbol designed to make people see what they want to. I've been called Satan worshiper, Jew, Illuminati, Bibelforscher, etc.
@@waynejedynak9443 Yes it's interesting. It's one of the oldest known symbols that gets reused in so many different ways. I even get people saying it's Harry Potter's "deathly hallows". Whatever that is.
Friday a cousin of mine from St. Louis Died Friday from the Covid 19. Everyone look out for your elderly check on them and don't infect them! Most of all treasure them.
“We shape them by the way that we react to them.” -THG ...it’s episodes like this and quotes of such high caliber that keep me coming back for more...you rock Mr. History Guy!!!
YES! Really glad you chimed in on this. 1918 was a helluva year, not as bad as 536 but still...up to 100 million dead. No mention seemingly until nowadays. I started to become aware of this event years ago. My girlfriend at the time, and I, used to take a shortcut through a cemetery to get Sunday morning breakfast. I noticed all the headstones with 1918 emblazoned on them and was left wondering, "what happened in 1918?" We lived together in Philadelphia, one of the hardest hit cities in America
Another interesting factoid that resulted from the 1918 Flu: the design of home heating systems changed. The institute of health’s advice was to begin sleeping with windows open at night, to allow fresh air to circulate. Thus heating systems, especially those of hot water & steam radiators, began to be sized 2-3 times larger than they needed to be. Many of the trade journals of that era published charts that showed what a normal-sized radiator would be for a given space, and advised the doubling of its size so that the space would heat properly even with windows open in the winter. We still see this today in homes built around 1918-1922, as the heating systems are incredibly oversized. Case in point: my 1920 house still had its original boiler, rated at 160,000 btu/hr, but when I replaced it, I performed a heat-loss calculation and now comfortably heat the house with 60,000 btu. Heatinghelp.com has a reference library with many interesting articles from the time period of the “Spanish Flu” and the impacts it had on home building and heating system design.
I grew up in a house that had it's coal firing furnace installed in 1903. I remember the giant pile of coal in the corner of the basement and my Dad shoveling it in. He would also incinerate most of our trash in that same furnace. When that thing got going the whole house felt like an oven. I remember him changing the system over to gas heat in 1969. It was never nearly as warm after that. There must have been a big disconnect sometime between 1922 and 1969. I have no idea what the BTU output was of either system but the 1903 furnace had far more output than the 1969 gas furnace. I'm sure the gas one would have been easy to measure but the coal fired one would vary by what you threw in it. If you loaded up the coal too much you had to evacuate the house for an hour or two or open up all the windows or both. That thing was mighty powerful. Easily it could have heated up a house 3-4 times that size. I know it was from 1903 because there was a huge number "1903" above the door that you put the coal in and Dad told us the furnace was older than my grandfather who was 65 at the time.
@@nunyabiznez6381 - My parents had a home in Ardmore, OK that was built in 1896. In the basement was the remains of the coal-fired heater, long since retired in favor of a natural gas unit. I’m not sure when the change was made, but there were times I thought I was going to freeze at night. I miss that house.
@@OkieSketcher1949 I remember the smell. The entire neighborhood would have that same acrid smell but I only smelled it in the fall when people needed to start heating their houses. By Halloween I was used to the smell again and couldn't smell it any more. I always associated that smell with going back to school. But then in the late 1960's there was a push to change over to gas. My Dad said switching was the worst mistake because he had no place to put the trash and had to start taking it to the town dump. Gas also cost more. The only benefit was you didn't smell burning coal every September.
@@nunyabiznez6381 We still have this smell on the Balkans, my mother uses wood to heat the whole house even today in 21 century. Every time I go visit it remainds me of childhood. At least if everything goes South with electrical blackouts in Western Europe I could still survive on Balkans if I go back home. 😁
@@The_Touring_Jedi I can't smell burning wood and haven't been able to in over 50 years since I grew up with the odor. The only exception is sometimes I can smell certain exotic hardwoods. I heated my home by burning wood most of my life. It is very cost effective and it is a plentiful resource. Today I live in Florida and it's not really an issue.
I volunteer at my local cemetery to help clean headstones and one thing I noticed was the large number of deaths from the year 1919. I'm not saying those deaths were ALL related to the Spanish Flu but I have a suspicion that many did.
Brian Garrow there is some disagreement over whether there were three or four “waves,” but the influenza did strike again in 1919. Mortality rates were not as high as the second wave, but it was still devastating. It seems odd that the 1919 wave is less remembered. Your intuition is likely correct, reporting was inconsistent, and doctors were not required to report flu deaths. Deaths from the influenza were often listed as pneumonia.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Yes, we really can't be sure about causes unless they were something obvious, like a drowning or logging accident. (You can surmise that I live in a small logging town in the Pacific Northwest.) The irritating thing is I can't go to my local museum and read the copies of the town paper from the era. This shutdown is hampering my research!!!
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Speaking of history repeating itself - it was recently pointed out that, according to the CDC, NO ONE has died of the flu or pneumonia this year - all deaths are being reported as covid-related.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I wish I could let more people know how bad Covid-19 is but its being "padded" by the ongoing cases in reporting: we really have worldwide 21% CFR mortality rates on Covid-19. CLOSED CASES 554,703 Cases which had an outcome: 437,306 (79%) Recovered and 117,397 (21%) Deaths www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ But too many accepting the "ongoing" where we get more new cases in per day than can go into "recovered" or "died" bins for recording thus with the ongoing rising quicker than closed cases we can suppress the bad news on a long term illness like this (that takes 1 to 6 weeks) to have an outcome.
@@nferraro222 that is pants on fire not true, who was source that pointed it out? (FOX) and (OANN)? and easy to fact check. www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm We have decades more experience with Flu confirmations lab tests, tracking of symptoms and outcomes with influenza. Oh and that little thing Flu and Covid-19 have Almost nothing but being made of RNA in common. Even that isn't same kind of RNA. Flu most people mild cases you take 2 to 5 days to recover from at home self remedies, Covid-19, at least weeks for mild cases. FLU if you are hospitalized it is for a few days and not that often would you need ICU or ventilator. COVID-19, Average hospital stay is 3 to 6 weeks most of that is with ICU Ventilator combo. Covid-19 has so far killed 21% of closed cases (cases that have had an outcome either recovered from or died from the disease)
My 12 year old and I watch one of your videos everyday since the cancellation of school in our state. You sir are a credit to this nation and there should be a History video about you, doing virtual teaching to young and old history buffs like my son and I. Thank you so much for doing what you do and I hope you and yours are doing well and keeping safe in our version of the 1918 Pandemic. Keep up the great work. We are looking through your videos for the Pearl Harbor Attack, since my son's great great uncle was killed during the first wave of the attack at Hickam Field near hanger 15. He was Prvt. James R. Johnson of the 22nd Material Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corp. just our little connection to historical events. Keep up the GREAT Work we LOVE it.
There's a lot going on here. Good research, good analysis and thoughts on the topic that may have not been so obvious, and of course, good presentation. The style of narration really adds a lot to the drama and watchability of this.
I've watched almost every video of yours for years. I love how everything is explained in a neutral fact based way. No sides chosen or conclusions made about today's current events. Simply information presented for us the viewer to contemplate. Thank you.
I was very young at that time but do not remember to well. I remember public drinking fountains were closed as well as some public swimming pools. Many who got it ended up crippled or dead. And the thought of the people having to live in the iron lungs was scary. The History Guy doing an episode on that part of history would be most wonderful!
@@maxwellhamm8977 It was scary stuff. Several kids I knew were crippled in their legs. My brother in law lost his mother. It hurt and affected many people. I was a farm kid, out running around every day. My fear was catching it and having to lay on my back in an iron lung for most of the day. That would of been about as bad as death to me.
Thank you for reviewing the S.F. 1918-2018 Anniversary episode, w/2020 perspective. Excellent analysis. Very poignant & well done. We do collectively shape History by our actions & inactions. Seemingly simple individual choices may lead to complexities; significantly changing the course of History.
The most sophisticated treatment of the interactions between disease, society and events I’ve seen. Grad level thesis quality exposition. Nicely done, sir!
My cousin 2 generations removed, died of the Spanish Flu in 1918. She was 22 and left a 2 year old orphan boy. Her Aunt adopted him. Also, my great uncle had it as a 20 year old soldier and survived. He was bedridden for 6 months. He lived until the age of 92.
One of your most interesting videos. I never knew why it was called the Spanish Flue until now . My Italian Grandfather from Collinsville died of the Spanish Flu. He was a coal miner whose lungs had been degraded by working in the mine. To help him to support his family his union brothers gave him the janitorial job at the Miners Theater in Collinsville. After he died my mother was born. As was the custom in Italian families his brother Looked after my Grandmother. Thanks Uncle Tony.
I had a great uncle and great aunt that both passed away in 1918 due to the Spanish flu. They were 16 and 18 years old. I never knew them of course, but will be united with them one day in Heaven.
Interesting to read. The 1918 pandemic impacted my family as it left my Dad and his 4 brothers orphans after their mother died of the flu. Dad was 2 years old at the time...
My grandfather started working in the mines at age 9..With little education when he was drafted in WW 1 he was declared a moron and gassed to train medics how to deal with it..He was taken care of by the state veterans board for life but died before I was born..Maybe an episode on how the millions of uneducated were used by our government as in Forest Gump..50 years ago I visited Fort Riley Kansas as that was where my brother in law was stationed..Again this episode contains many gems that need further researching
My grandfather was a private in the 96th aero squadron in France 1918-1919. He died in 1956 in a Veteran's hospital. To this day his cause of death is classified. When I requested a death certificate for the 30th time last year I finally was issued a copy. The only things that were not redacted was his name, date of birth and date of death.
@@nunyabiznez6381 Incredible! How many other veterans have causes of death that are redacted - deleted ... either because there are no living relatives, or those that are simply never wondered enough to check.
Another great episode of the History Guy. His research and presentation are always top notch. Note to History Guy... next time you do an episode on racing, be sure to wear that checkered bow tie. Classy touch!
What timely and excellent reminder. A few years from now people will have settled down and be able to look back and see how much politics have had an effect on our response to this epidemic.
politics, and even more political correctness. An unwillingness to question the statements of the Chinese government and the Zimbadwean head of the WHO because people were more afraid of being called racist or xenophobic than to take proper measures to protect themselves (and entire countries).
I inherited my grandmother's diaries and extensive photograph collection. She was a nursing student when her nursing school was turned into a field hospital Sept. 1918. The photos depict hundreds of tents and thousands of sick people along with trucks filled with dead bodies, dead people who had died while waiting in line to see a doctor and a sign that reads "REMEMBER, KEEP YOUR MASK ON, WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY AND STAY 6 FEET APART AT ALL TIMES!"
Thank you for this video. As a spaniard, I apreciate the explanation on why it was called "spanish". I already knew that, but it's good to hear a disclosure. Subscribing to your channel.
I have a photograph of a sign that reads: "REMEMBER, KEEP YOUR MASK ON, WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY AND STAY 6 FEET APART AT ALL TIMES! My grandmother took that photograph in September 1918 at a field hospital set up at her nursing school where she was a 2nd year nursing student. They had thousands of influenza patients there and hundreds there died. So yeah, history repeats itself. Incidentally I still have the mask she wore at the time along with the camera that took the photos, her uniforms and school books. Now I know why she cried every time she went through the old photo album.
My great uncle Fred Jahns passed from the flu 2 days after he returned from the war front to Brooklyn NY. One of my family history events I learned growing up!
My wife's grandfather, Pearson, and his family lived outside of Philadelphia on what was then a farm road through Bryn Mawr (now US 30) in 1918. His son, my wife's father, was born that year in May. When the flu epidemic hit Philadelpha hard, refugees would walk out of the city into the countryside looking for help. Pearson was willing to provide food and water, but not shelter - he knew that proximity would spread the flu to his baby son and wife. Four men arrived at the farm gate and rang the bell. Pearson walked out and , when asked, set food and water next to the gate, where the men could reach it. When they finished their meal, they demanded that he provide shelter and climbed over the gate. He readied his shotgun and told them to stop - when they didn't, he killed them. He used horses to drag the bodies behind the barn into a single grave. Pearson felt justified when the family on the farm next to his offered food and shelter to refugees and all - family and refugees - died of the flu. When the flu epidemic receded, he sold the farm and moved to Sarasota, Florida in case anyone missed the dead men. Pearson started a plant nursery in Sarasota and, eventually, designed and planted Sarasota Jungle Gardens.
Goetz Liedtke Sir it would seem to me that this crime needs to be reported to the authorities. I'm sure those families of those murdered men would love to be able to heard what happen to them and bury them in a family plot instead of an unmarked grave.
@@JesseWorld1000 I believe it has, since Pearson has been dead for over 40 years. It may have been difficult to identify them, however, as they were transients at a time when there was little technology to identify people. I suppose a DNA analysis might find relatives, but they are likely to be remote since the families of the men were likely to have died like the neighbor family who admitted the transients.
It's interesting how both you and Extra History ended up being motivated to make similar videos related to the renewed interest in the "Spanish" flu causing a spike in views on earlier videos on the topic. Good on you for doing so.
@@sweethomeTN731 just remember these style are for "compliance" that you wear mask to reduce chance you spread the virus if you're asymptomatic. But won't prevent you from acquiring Sars-cov-2, unless finely woven no mistakes high thread count, won't come close to N95 levels of protection and threat reduction. (N95 = filtering 95% of particles size 0.3 Microns and larger.)
Bang on the money THG. I read something about Bush recently. That on one of his breaks at his ranch he had read a book about the 1918 pandemic. He scared the bejesus out of him and he took loads of far sighted measures to prevent a repetition. Sadly some were stopped or not fully funded by later administrations. Stay safe.
Do you have source for that I would to cite in some discussions. The gerrymandering of political gains using this pandemic is sickening. The political motivated people are scum to the core doesn't matter if it mass murder event or pandemic, they parade out the corpses and dance with them to farther their own political ambitious and desires. That no tragedy should go to waste before they are using the people who died to farther their agenda, irregardless of it was in their best interest what they milking the poor souls' corpses for.....
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Steven King used the "Capt. Tripps" flu in his novel The Stand. Ask most any one in the medical profession and they all say Influenza is the great leveler.
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 and two-thirds of the current administration's people who were trained to deal with pandemics by the prior Administration are gone. And the pandemic response team set up by the prior Administration was fired in 2018 by the current president who also last March proposed 10% budget cuts to the CDC and subsequently has increased those to 15% during the pandemic. Pretty amazing and horrifying stuff. I have a background in forecasting in math and a working experience with exponential and logistic curves. The lowest number of fatalities I can get in my models is 142000 this year. I can't see how they're getting 60,000. We're going to pass that number in 7 or 8 days.
Hey Mr. H.G. Glad to see your doing well during all this virus stuff. Ty for the video. My grandad was born in 1900 and as a kid he used to tell me about the Spanish Flu outbreak and what he witnessed then. I will always remember his words saying how fast it was both in spreading and killing. Be safe up there Mr. H.G. Thanks again.
When you see an accounting of the fallen, remember, these are not numbers, they are people, Mothers, Fathers, Sons, and Daughters. Please, stay safe, stay healthy.
12:48 “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” --Paracelsus Or put another way... just because some is good, doesn't mean more is better.
I remember bringing up the 1918 pandemic in middle school science class. We were talking about disease and transmission. No one believed me. Classmates said I was just repeating stuff I heard Donald Sutherland say in the movie “Outbreak”, which had released around that time. The following day I brought in a book to back up what I’d said. Many were still skeptical. Yea, cus I’m the eighth grader known for having a full color print shop in his basement in the mid 1990s, right?
Man, I recently had a coworker who knows I'm a history buff, ask me "Did you know the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Japan in World War Two?" This guy has a computer science degree. I have no idea how common knowledge events escape people today...
My great grandfather died of the Spanish Flu in November 1918. Left a wife and four children. I have always known about the Spanish Flu as it has effected our family for generations.
Once again, THG, another historical lesson with definite relevance to today. It’s amazing how events seem to reoccur throughout history, not so much the same events but events that are remarkably similar.
Thank You for this upload, very interesting as well as timely. I don't know who said this first so I can't quote them "The only thing new in this World is the History we haven't read yet!"
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it- George Santayana, a quote I put in a book, The Importance of History and Why Learn It, I gave to my granddaughter...another quote I think is apt is Kierkegaard, who said, life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards...
My Aunt (aged 14) lived in St. Louis during the 1918 pandemic. She remembered bodies being stacked at the curbside for the truck to come by and pick them up, some were in wooden boxes and some were simply wrapped in blankets or rugs. She said it was a time she could never forget.
My mom was born in March 1918 in Saint Louis. She and her mom survived. Her mom had a hard life and lived to 96. I think the older generations were a lot tougher.
I lost a great uncle when he was gassed on Nov.11th, 1918 (yes, the last day of the war) and a great aunt earlier that year from the flu. I love your shows! And your coffee cups not bad either! 😉👍
As a person with a BA in History, you handle science very well. I love the way you speak. I wish my college professors were half as good of an lecturer as you are. By the way, my college professors were some of the greatest instructors in the world. They were just lucky that they did not have to be compared to you. Keep up the good work. I love your take on history and because of you, I love History!
Jose Oswaldo De Peralta quinine was often recommended by doctors in 1918, although generally acknowledged now to have been ineffective. The recommendation was likely because quinine was effective against malaria, whose symptoms include fever. In terms of today, some anti-malarial drugs showed early success in research against coronaviruses like MERS and SARS, and so have been a continued area of study.
Jose Oswaldo De Peralta quinine was often recommended by doctors in 1918, although generally acknowledged now to have been ineffective. The recommendation was likely because quinine was effective against malaria, whose symptoms include fever. In terms of today, some anti-malarial drugs showed early success in research against coronaviruses like MERS and SARS, and so have been a continued area of study.
Well, quinine was certainly in the pharmacopia of the time, and a huge desire to "try anything" to see if it helped. Hydroxyquinine(?) seems to be involved in delivering zinc to the cells, which seems to have some effect.
My Grandfather died on November 15th, 1918 at the age of 29 from the Spanish flu. My father used to tell me of how deathly ill he (my father) was with the flu. He was only five years old at the time.
One of the few treatments for flu back in 1918 was hydrotherapy, or warm water baths, to stimulate the immune system. Since there is no definitive medication for covid-19, there is some thought of trying hydrotherapy.
Desperation drives much. Whatever dubious benefit derived from this practice might well be cancelled by the gallons of possibly contaminated water produced, unless stringent disinfection of the tub was done subsequently. There were many instances of spread of pathogens from one patient to another by use of Hubbard tanks for burn patients fifty years ago if that protocol was neglected.
There is an Amazing book by John M. Barry “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” which chronicles at length the work Fleming did to create antibiotics. He was influenced and in many ways pushed hard to resolve this flu. It’s very good. This was great. I would love to see more on this, with this tone during quarantine, if you could. I believe there was a few instances of the Black Plague in Rome and it’s affects on commerce and movements of goods and how and why people responded the way they did. Some responses at the time were considered appropriate and ultimately made things worse. As I cats were destroyed in Europe during the plague. Which gave the fleas that truly transmitted the flu the opportunity to seek their nourishment from people-spreading the disease. Great work here.
My grandfather was just graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1918. He had enlisted in the army but it was deferred while he finished his education. Boston was certainly one of the Cities that was hard hit, so he was offered the choice observing overseas in a field Hospital, or staying in Boston to help fight the flu epidemic. He chose to stay and work in Boston, but one of his superiors, a returned veteran said that he wasn't sure he had made the safest choice. He was being shown around what was then Boston City Hospital, when he saw a pretty set of ankles behind a screen, and after taking a peek at the rest of the nurse, went home and wrote in his diary that that was the girl he would marry. Luckily for him my grandmother said yes. He passed away before I was born, but I remember my grandma telling me how horrific it was, and how they put toe tags on all the patients as they came in, to save time later on as the majority of cases did not survive. She was also working in 1919 at the time of Boston's great Molasses Flood, which she said had a separate horror all its own.
An interesting anecdote re the 1918 Spanish flu: my grandfather was born in 1900 in a British concentration camp, Irene, Pretoria. His mother died there and greatgrandfather never remarried, he raised grandfather and 3 other brothers on his own. 1n 1918 he and the 4 sons moved around the district helping flu victims. Not one of them got sick, apparently greatgrandfather fed each of them a spoon full of a common household cleaner (??)every morning. This I heard from my mother about 1980, whether the information is entirely accurate cannot be confirmed as the last of the 4 brothers died during the 1970's. I put question marks behind the stuff because it is not advisable to try this, even if it was accurate, the fluid would probably have had much different ingredients at that time anyway. I have the name of the fluid but would rather withhold the info in the public interest.
I have my own options on the handling of today's issues and by some of the comments I've read others have similar OR opposing views, but the history guy is a perfect professional and just gives the facts. Well done again!
My parents, Aunts and Uncles lived through that Pandemic. So many people died that, being winter in Western Maryland, the dearly departed had to be put in cold storage. Coupled with the Earth being frozen and thus made for digging a Grave almost impossible. My Aunt on my Fathers side said that she remembered playing with a Sister and then she was gone. Come Spring there were a lot of Funerals. Coal Miners, which was the main business of the town, worked in close proximity to each other and no one would think of missing work unless he was very incapacitated.
In a hundred years will a historian like you write about how stupid we were for, despite being 100 years smarter in medical knowledge, we were too dang stubborn to just stay home and keep it from spreading! It’s too bad that we can’t learn from history! Great video!
Tucsoncoyote 2019 you have TDS. Hillary would have kept the country open and killed hundreds of thousands. Political Correctness has been destroying the country for years. At least I know what bathroom to use. #Trump2020
@@davidjames666 Well aren't you being sensible. USA presently has the most cases, and the worst mortality in the world. Countries who actually did something early like a lockdown are doing way better. But if you want to believe something that would have happened, but which is only in your imagination, then carry on. Hope your wonderful orange leader does not kill you or any of your family. Stay safe
I was having a conversation with some friends on Facebook about how little effect it seems the Spanish Flu has on culture. I think of The Great Gatsby and while the effect of the Great War was key to the book, did the influenza even get mentioned? I wonder if part of it is that people back then were simply more used to epidemics.
I once asked my grandmother about the Spanish fluand she didn't remember much. She was nine during the epidemic and when I inquired 89. Others didn't recall alot either. It seems most folks tried to forget about it.
A very well done presentation of history; factual, timely, and poignant reminder that we are not alone. That others have been in our sad state. But to me the most important thing to remember is that the 'Spanish Flu' ended. That something endured. When you sit alone or with your friends or family, consider the millions of people who have made this journey before you. Thank you again History Guy, it was a good reminder of hope.
The Spanish Flu was one of my Grandfathers first memories. He was born 1914 and the end of the war/Flu were his first vivid memories. He lost a older sister when he was 14 of "Consumption" and he carried TB scars on his lungs; lived to almost 96 and was by all accounts a "good fella". Miss you, Grandpa.
My great-grandmother and her young baby died in this. She left behind a husband and six children. My grandmother was the oldest, she used to talk about how their lives were impacted by this epidemic.
Another great episode, thanks.
My mom was born in 1907 in Elmira NY. she and here 7 sisters, two maiden aunts, the cook and her child stayed inside their large home during Spanish Flue. Her mom had already passed on years before. Grandfather owned a hotel with two saloons he operated. He would stay at the hotel and had groceries delivered to his family. They had to be left on the back porch with no physical contact between the cook and the delivery man. Grandfather would talk to the family through shut windows. They lived that way until no one in town was getting infected anymore. Grandfather survived to come home and hug his daughters again.
Sheltering in Place via 1918. If it worked then it should work now.
No matter the distance in time, some things will never change.
Stay safe everyone out there. We will prevail.
@@TheSlz94580 MUCH longer incubation period with COVID, and it is even contagious AFTER symptoms resolve. This is a different beast.
My grandmother was a 2nd year nursing student in Massachusetts when the outbreak hit a few weeks into the term. They turned the nursing school into a field hospital with hundreds of tents housing thousands of patients. She was an avid photographer and took thousands of photos which I now have archived. One shows a sign reminding everyone to keep their masks on, wash their hands frequently and remain 6 feet apart at all times. Grandma was a prophet.
@@nunyabiznez6381 Wonderful story. I recall recently reading that the survival of patients during the Spanish Flu was in part dependent upon the existence and quality of nursing care. Your grandmother's patients were indeed lucky to be served by a nursing school.
You have to love someone who can unself-consciously toss out a word like "recrudescence" and who thinks highly enough of his audience that he presumes they'll know what it means.
Hahaha, had to stop to look it up and add it to my vocabulary!
No timidity or compuction whatsoever.
Recrudescence: the recurrence of an undesirable condition.
Good when words like this are used. The curious will educate themselves and the lazy won’t. Oh well 🤷🏻♂️
I'm not proud. If I don't know, I look it up.
I believe it's a quality of a good educator--to elevate an audience's knowledge without sounding high and mighty about it. And in this case, he structured the sentence in such a way that there were enough context clues to understand meaning--even if most of us never heard that word before. I had a couple of history teachers I really enjoyed, but never one who made me want to go look up some previously unknown vocabulary word on my own--kudos, THG!
They should make your videos mandatory viewing for high school. Always a great job and never boring.
I laughed the other day when a local health official was on the radio and stated "we beat the Spanish flu". We didn't beat it we survived it...big difference.
After 3 waves and a 100 million dead
The Spanish flu of 1918 killed more than five times as many Americans than died in WWI. While my grandfather was in France fighting Germans my Grandmother was a nurse in Massachusetts and she saw more dead in a day than he saw in the entire war. 5% of the population got the flu and 0.6% died as a result numbering over 650,000 dead and that number is ten times the current death told from COVID 19 but as little as officials are taking this seriously don't be shocked if COVID 19 breaks the Spanish flu record as worst pandemic in modern times tough neither compare to the 25 million dead from the Black Death in medieval times.
Looks like we won't be beating the Coronavirus either. We'll survive it, if we're lucky.
not every one survived it
@@Theire1 Obviously the numbers speak for themselves, by my grandparents did.
The Spanish flu also killed Lenin's right hand man. That may have had some of the biggest long term historical consequences.
His replacement was Joseph Stalin
President Woodrow Wilson was negotiating in Versailles at the end of WWI contracted the flu, running a fever of 103-105 and had terrible coughing fits. After the fever broke he returned to the peace talks but was a changed man in the eyes of those who were with him. He tired easily and quickly lost focus and patience exhibiting signs of someone who had suffered from a type of neurological disorder. The man who once appeared to the only one capable of negotiating a lasting peace was then only able to achieve some of his specific goals but was unable or unwilling to articulate a broader vision for a better world. Over the next crucial weeks, Wilson lost his best chance to win the peace by agreeing in principle to draconian terms favored by France. The final settlement punished Germany with a formal admission of guilt, enormous reparations and the loss of about 10 percent of its territory. We all know what resulted from that mistake when Hitler and the Nazis rose to power.
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 Just had to go there and cause division didn't you. I seem to remember media and opposition party angry at him and mocking him for closing travel from China, wonder how many American lives that saved?
@@deanfirnatine7814
Everything that trump has done since taking Office amounts to NOTHING other than division, chaos, confusion, animosity and general pandemonium. He's incapable, inept, and INSANE. And come November he'll be GONE! 😄💙🇺🇸
@Zach P
Zach! You leave your mommy's computer alone and run out and play in traffic with all your little zombie freinds!
Go on, NOW!!!
Lando Calrissian >> Hong Kong is in most respects still its own polity-oddly enough. Hence the protests. And they closed their border with the rest of China early on in the pandemic. So it was comparatively quite safe to continue flights from Hong Kong. It’s remarkable to me that many people don’t realize everything Trump does is calculated, often for effect.
In many ways, it is hard for modern people living in First World countries to conceive of a pandemic sweeping around the world and killing millions of people, and it is even harder to believe that something as common as influenza could cause such widespread illness and death.
― Charles River Editors, The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic: The History and Legacy of the World’s Deadliest Influenza Outbreak
☕
It has truly been surreal.
I have found myself thinking
"I can't believe it." Our vast medical knowledge and we are all but defenseless. Sad history in the making currently. No doubt lights will shine as examples of humanity's finest surge ahead. Thank you. May history remember you well.
@Richard McCaig your right the government knew from the start that this was just a new strain of flu. It is not even comparable to the 1918 pandemic. It's in no way a pandemic if it was there would be a lot more people dead, millions around the world. They'd have the military out collecting bodies instead of trampling on people's rights.!
@@thebigdog2295 The current mortality rate for the 30 million plus known flu cases on the US is about .01.
The current mortality rate for COVID 19 is about 3 percent for known cases.
If 30 million people had had COVID 19 even at half the current mortality rate is about 450,000 dead just on the US.
It is not the people on general the government is worried about.
It is the infrastructure of the medical community.
Losing too many doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
Overwhelming hospitals and care facilities that would then be unable treat injuries, trauma patients etc.
Governments want you and I at work paying taxes to line their pockets.
You really think the governments turned off their economies with out a dang good reason?
You really think that President Trump would turn off such a great economy.
He was not going to, then he did.
What changed his mind?
Nothing ever has before.
What is different?
Brilliant quotation - well-found, thank you.
I'm always amazed at how you can make history so interesting and informative in such a small amount of time.
Amazing how they don't actually teach history anymore, I remember learning about how the various plagues shaped politics and social order and about the Spanish Flu.
Had a good first hand source, my grandmother, who was 12 in 1918 and lost two of her brothers from it... I'm so grateful to have spent decades talking to her about that, the 20's the depression and so much more. She was the one who spawned my love of history and genealogy. She made it come alive and not a boring routine of memorizing dates.
My grandmother was 11 in 1918. The one thing that most stuck out to her was how many houses had a quarantine sign on them. No one in her family got sick, But they were concerned. I can now say I know how they all must have felt. Stay safe everyone.
When I was a teen I remember two relatives that had been in the Army during WWI telling of their flu experiences. One was stateside on the West Coast when the Spanish Flu struck while the other was in France. The stateside relative was hospitalized in San Francisco. The Army was overwhelmed and civilian ladies from San Francisco volunteered to assist the Army for care of the sick. This relative was so weak that it t took him three or four days to write his mother a letter. He had to make sure his handwriting did not make her think he was sick, but in "good health". The relative in France was obviously neglected due to the numbers of sick the Army had to deal with. A friend of his from his home town, serving with him in France had received Army permission to leave his unit and check on his friend. The relative advised he was too weak to care for himself and was probably in and out of consciousness. All he remembered was being shaken by his friend when the friend found him in the hospital. The relative advised that when he was awakened that all he remembered was that his buddy was crying. The buddy helped sit him up in the bed, washed his face and gave him a shave. He said that had that friend not found him he likely would have died. Needless to say that they were lifelong friends after that.
I LOVE History and am always impressed with the way you make it SO interesting. Thank you
History. We keep forgetting that if we don’t remember the folly of our past we are doomed to repeat it.
Very well stated and the honest truth !
The very reason I believe removal of statues and such because the people weren't good is a bad thing. History us both good and bad and both sides must be remembered
Actually and historically.. it's not that bad.. deaths to population ratio wise. Then again what does a layman know.. if they would have had Facebook in 1916-1919 about this...
Damn.. than needs a scotts accent
we repeatedly, repeat history... since the dawn of mankind...and we will continue to do so.
I lost an Aunt to the flu in Philadelphia. She months died before my father, her brother, was born. I did not understand why he could not tell me anything about her when I was young. I was a teenager before I discovered her date of death on her tombstone.
Because of this experience, I have had a lifelong interest in public health actions. As such, I have to tell you that in all cases, it is better to overreact than to wait and do nothing. Or worse, to deny or obfuscate the truth. The mayor of Philadelphia was warned about not allowing the parade to proceed. He chose to ignore it, even though he was given enough evidence from his own advisors that there was an illness in the city that was overcrowding the doctors’ offices before the mayor made his decision. The mayor chose to “lock the barn door after the horse was stolen.”
Philadelphia was hit hardest in 1918.
Kenneth Lamm there is an old adage that is: If one is to error then always error on the side of safety
Sound sadly familiar... 🤦🤦🤦
Some older people don't like to talk about the past I would expect it was bad news to them especially in that day and time
Stay safe, History Guy (and Gal)!!
Remember, we're all alone in this together.
@mad ass ass fits
"Alone is much better together.
When the worst is still yet to come."
George Strait
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 I'm just trying to be part of the solution not part of the problem. It's working pretty good here in Washington State
@mad ass I was wondering how long it was going to take for the Tin Foil Hat crowd to check in. Let me ax you a question, mad cow ass hat, Were you able to push your head up your ass or did you need help? Also, how did you end up on this channel? I thought you people received all your information from L. Ron.
You know it's going to be a great day when you sit down with a nice hot cup of coffee and The History Guy hits your notifications.
Anon, love the symbol next to your name. 13 years for me.
@@waynejedynak9443 It's actually a Rorchach symbol designed to make people see what they want to. I've been called Satan worshiper, Jew, Illuminati, Bibelforscher, etc.
@@HalkerVeil we do use it in the program of recovery which I will keep anonymous. Btw, shows what you can get people to say just using a symbol.
@@waynejedynak9443 Yes it's interesting. It's one of the oldest known symbols that gets reused in so many different ways. I even get people saying it's Harry Potter's "deathly hallows". Whatever that is.
Thank you for being you it's so very nice to see you again hope you both had a blessed Easter
Thank you for sharing this video ! Still doing well here in Kansas ! Praying that everyone there is still doing well ! Take care and stay safe !
Friday a cousin of mine from St. Louis Died Friday from the Covid 19. Everyone look out for your elderly check on them and don't infect them! Most of all treasure them.
@J G Thank you GOD BLESS
So sorry to hear this.
@@DomTV2010 Thank you. And GOD BLESS
My condolences there sir 🙏.
Condolences. *hug* Many of us are dealing with the same thing and even if not are feeling it.
For a “history guy” the medical aspects of this excellent submission are spot on. Keep up the solid work! I have no corrections on the science here!
Well, it very evident the history guy not associated with the MSM, he delivered the actual facts as they occurred at the time.
“We shape them by the way that we react to them.” -THG ...it’s episodes like this and quotes of such high caliber that keep me coming back for more...you rock Mr. History Guy!!!
I do so appreciate what you do.True accounts of historical events without any agenda are hard to find these days.Thank you.
YES! Really glad you chimed in on this. 1918 was a helluva year, not as bad as 536 but still...up to 100 million dead. No mention seemingly until nowadays. I started to become aware of this event years ago. My girlfriend at the time, and I, used to take a shortcut through a cemetery to get Sunday morning breakfast. I noticed all the headstones with 1918 emblazoned on them and was left wondering, "what happened in 1918?" We lived together in Philadelphia, one of the hardest hit cities in America
Thanks so much for making history accessible to anyone and interesting to all! I'm a big fan!
You're a big fan? What type? a box fan? a swivelling house fan? an industrial fan? maybe even a swamp cooler??
Another interesting factoid that resulted from the 1918 Flu: the design of home heating systems changed. The institute of health’s advice was to begin sleeping with windows open at night, to allow fresh air to circulate. Thus heating systems, especially those of hot water & steam radiators, began to be sized 2-3 times larger than they needed to be. Many of the trade journals of that era published charts that showed what a normal-sized radiator would be for a given space, and advised the doubling of its size so that the space would heat properly even with windows open in the winter. We still see this today in homes built around 1918-1922, as the heating systems are incredibly oversized. Case in point: my 1920 house still had its original boiler, rated at 160,000 btu/hr, but when I replaced it, I performed a heat-loss calculation and now comfortably heat the house with 60,000 btu. Heatinghelp.com has a reference library with many interesting articles from the time period of the “Spanish Flu” and the impacts it had on home building and heating system design.
I grew up in a house that had it's coal firing furnace installed in 1903. I remember the giant pile of coal in the corner of the basement and my Dad shoveling it in. He would also incinerate most of our trash in that same furnace. When that thing got going the whole house felt like an oven. I remember him changing the system over to gas heat in 1969. It was never nearly as warm after that. There must have been a big disconnect sometime between 1922 and 1969. I have no idea what the BTU output was of either system but the 1903 furnace had far more output than the 1969 gas furnace. I'm sure the gas one would have been easy to measure but the coal fired one would vary by what you threw in it. If you loaded up the coal too much you had to evacuate the house for an hour or two or open up all the windows or both. That thing was mighty powerful. Easily it could have heated up a house 3-4 times that size. I know it was from 1903 because there was a huge number "1903" above the door that you put the coal in and Dad told us the furnace was older than my grandfather who was 65 at the time.
@@nunyabiznez6381 - My parents had a home in Ardmore, OK that was built in 1896. In the basement was the remains of the coal-fired heater, long since retired in favor of a natural gas unit. I’m not sure when the change was made, but there were times I thought I was going to freeze at night. I miss that house.
@@OkieSketcher1949 I remember the smell. The entire neighborhood would have that same acrid smell but I only smelled it in the fall when people needed to start heating their houses. By Halloween I was used to the smell again and couldn't smell it any more. I always associated that smell with going back to school. But then in the late 1960's there was a push to change over to gas. My Dad said switching was the worst mistake because he had no place to put the trash and had to start taking it to the town dump. Gas also cost more. The only benefit was you didn't smell burning coal every September.
@@nunyabiznez6381 We still have this smell on the Balkans, my mother uses wood to heat the whole house even today in 21 century. Every time I go visit it remainds me of childhood. At least if everything goes South with electrical blackouts in Western Europe I could still survive on Balkans if I go back home. 😁
@@The_Touring_Jedi I can't smell burning wood and haven't been able to in over 50 years since I grew up with the odor. The only exception is sometimes I can smell certain exotic hardwoods. I heated my home by burning wood most of my life. It is very cost effective and it is a plentiful resource. Today I live in Florida and it's not really an issue.
I volunteer at my local cemetery to help clean headstones and one thing I noticed was the large number of deaths from the year 1919. I'm not saying those deaths were ALL related to the Spanish Flu but I have a suspicion that many did.
Brian Garrow there is some disagreement over whether there were three or four “waves,” but the influenza did strike again in 1919. Mortality rates were not as high as the second wave, but it was still devastating. It seems odd that the 1919 wave is less remembered. Your intuition is likely correct, reporting was inconsistent, and doctors were not required to report flu deaths. Deaths from the influenza were often listed as pneumonia.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Yes, we really can't be sure about causes unless they were something obvious, like a drowning or logging accident. (You can surmise that I live in a small logging town in the Pacific Northwest.)
The irritating thing is I can't go to my local museum and read the copies of the town paper from the era. This shutdown is hampering my research!!!
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Speaking of history repeating itself - it was recently pointed out that, according to the CDC, NO ONE has died of the flu or pneumonia this year - all deaths are being reported as covid-related.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I wish I could let more people know how bad Covid-19 is but its being "padded" by the ongoing cases in reporting: we really have worldwide 21% CFR mortality rates on Covid-19. CLOSED CASES 554,703 Cases which had an outcome: 437,306 (79%) Recovered and 117,397 (21%) Deaths
www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
But too many accepting the "ongoing" where we get more new cases in per day than can go into "recovered" or "died" bins for recording thus with the ongoing rising quicker than closed cases we can suppress the bad news on a long term illness like this (that takes 1 to 6 weeks) to have an outcome.
@@nferraro222 that is pants on fire not true, who was source that pointed it out? (FOX) and (OANN)? and easy to fact check. www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm
We have decades more experience with Flu confirmations lab tests, tracking of symptoms and outcomes with influenza.
Oh and that little thing Flu and Covid-19 have Almost nothing but being made of RNA in common. Even that isn't same kind of RNA. Flu most people mild cases you take 2 to 5 days to recover from at home self remedies, Covid-19, at least weeks for mild cases. FLU if you are hospitalized it is for a few days and not that often would you need ICU or ventilator. COVID-19, Average hospital stay is 3 to 6 weeks most of that is with ICU Ventilator combo.
Covid-19 has so far killed 21% of closed cases (cases that have had an outcome either recovered from or died from the disease)
My 12 year old and I watch one of your videos everyday since the cancellation of school in our state. You sir are a credit to this nation and there should be a History video about you, doing virtual teaching to young and old history buffs like my son and I. Thank you so much for doing what you do and I hope you and yours are doing well and keeping safe in our version of the 1918 Pandemic. Keep up the great work. We are looking through your videos for the Pearl Harbor Attack, since my son's great great uncle was killed during the first wave of the attack at Hickam Field near hanger 15. He was Prvt. James R. Johnson of the 22nd Material Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corp. just our little connection to historical events. Keep up the GREAT Work we LOVE it.
Another fabulous episode
Love the "The History Guy" Facemask in the background
There's a lot going on here. Good research, good analysis and thoughts on the topic that may have not been so obvious, and of course, good presentation. The style of narration really adds a lot to the drama and watchability of this.
Excellent episode again history guy!
I've watched almost every video of yours for years. I love how everything is explained in a neutral fact based way. No sides chosen or conclusions made about today's current events. Simply information presented for us the viewer to contemplate. Thank you.
Could you do an episode on the polio epidemic in the U.S. in the 1950's? Thanks, great channel!
I was very young at that time but do not remember to well. I remember public drinking fountains were closed as well as some public swimming pools. Many who got it ended up crippled or dead. And the thought of the people having to live in the iron lungs was scary. The History Guy doing an episode on that part of history would be most wonderful!
Ron Fullerton I also was very young.. my mom was a nurse.. I believe I was in second grade when we took the medicine on a sugar cube.. my mom cried...
An early memory of standing in line to get a shot. 1959?
@@maxwellhamm8977 It was scary stuff. Several kids I knew were crippled in their legs. My brother in law lost his mother. It hurt and affected many people. I was a farm kid, out running around every day. My fear was catching it and having to lay on my back in an iron lung for most of the day. That would of been about as bad as death to me.
Thank you for reviewing the S.F. 1918-2018 Anniversary episode, w/2020 perspective. Excellent analysis. Very poignant & well done. We do collectively shape History by our actions & inactions. Seemingly simple individual choices may lead to complexities; significantly changing the course of History.
Excellent video. Nice to see some facts without punditry. Love your work.
The most sophisticated treatment of the interactions between disease, society and events I’ve seen. Grad level thesis quality exposition. Nicely done, sir!
My cousin 2 generations removed, died of the Spanish Flu in 1918. She was 22 and left a 2 year old orphan boy. Her Aunt adopted him. Also, my great uncle had it as a 20 year old soldier and survived. He was bedridden for 6 months. He lived until the age of 92.
One of your most interesting videos. I never knew why it was called the Spanish Flue until now . My Italian Grandfather from Collinsville died of the Spanish Flu. He was a coal miner whose lungs had been degraded by working in the mine. To help him to support his family his union brothers gave him the janitorial job at the Miners Theater in Collinsville. After he died my mother was born. As was the custom in Italian families his brother Looked after my Grandmother. Thanks Uncle Tony.
Two of my great grandparents died from Spanish Influenza, one from each side of the family. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
Your enthusiasm for history is infectious!
I had a great uncle and great aunt that both passed away in 1918 due to the Spanish flu. They were 16 and 18 years old. I never knew them of course, but will be united with them one day in Heaven.
One of your best. I'm going to be rewatching this because there are several layers of context that I want to fully integrate.
Love the "Lava" lamp and also the mask on the "head" next to the lamp! A nice touch!
Interesting to read. The 1918 pandemic impacted my family as it left my Dad and his 4 brothers orphans after their mother died of the flu. Dad was 2 years old at the time...
This was really informative. Thanks!
An extraordinary review and analysis. Your ending comments were brilliant!! Concise and spot on!
My grandfather started working in the mines at age 9..With little education when he was drafted in WW 1 he was declared a moron and gassed to train medics how to deal with it..He was taken care of by the state veterans board for life but died before I was born..Maybe an episode on how the millions of uneducated were used by our government as in Forest Gump..50 years ago I visited Fort Riley Kansas as that was where my brother in law was stationed..Again this episode contains many gems that need further researching
*Horrible.* I'm sorry.
That’s a hideous story. Everyone thinks their family history is horrid until they hear something truly horrific, like that.
My grandfather was a private in the 96th aero squadron in France 1918-1919. He died in 1956 in a Veteran's hospital. To this day his cause of death is classified. When I requested a death certificate for the 30th time last year I finally was issued a copy. The only things that were not redacted was his name, date of birth and date of death.
nunya biznez >> That is deeply disturbing.
@@nunyabiznez6381 Incredible! How many other veterans have causes of death that are redacted - deleted ... either because there are no living relatives, or those that are simply never wondered enough to check.
Another great episode of the History Guy. His research and presentation are always top notch. Note to History Guy... next time you do an episode on racing, be sure to wear that checkered bow tie. Classy touch!
What timely and excellent reminder. A few years from now people will have settled down and be able to look back and see how much politics have had an effect on our response to this epidemic.
So true, as both the media and Capitol Hill have turned this whole farce into a political football.
politics, and even more political correctness.
An unwillingness to question the statements of the Chinese government and the Zimbadwean head of the WHO because people were more afraid of being called racist or xenophobic than to take proper measures to protect themselves (and entire countries).
"History that deserves to be remembered" Thank you, sir.
I barely remember this 1918 pandemic mentioned in my history lessons..I watched a video on it..oh my it was truly horrible.
I inherited my grandmother's diaries and extensive photograph collection. She was a nursing student when her nursing school was turned into a field hospital Sept. 1918. The photos depict hundreds of tents and thousands of sick people along with trucks filled with dead bodies, dead people who had died while waiting in line to see a doctor and a sign that reads "REMEMBER, KEEP YOUR MASK ON, WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY AND STAY 6 FEET APART AT ALL TIMES!"
Thank you for this video. As a spaniard, I apreciate the explanation on why it was called "spanish". I already knew that, but it's good to hear a disclosure. Subscribing to your channel.
Wow, when they say history repeats itself they weren’t kidding!
First as tragedy then as farce.
I have a photograph of a sign that reads: "REMEMBER, KEEP YOUR MASK ON, WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY AND STAY 6 FEET APART AT ALL TIMES! My grandmother took that photograph in September 1918 at a field hospital set up at her nursing school where she was a 2nd year nursing student. They had thousands of influenza patients there and hundreds there died. So yeah, history repeats itself. Incidentally I still have the mask she wore at the time along with the camera that took the photos, her uniforms and school books. Now I know why she cried every time she went through the old photo album.
My great uncle Fred Jahns passed from the flu 2 days after he returned from the war front to Brooklyn NY. One of my family history events I learned growing up!
My wife's grandfather, Pearson, and his family lived outside of Philadelphia on what was then a farm road through Bryn Mawr (now US 30) in 1918. His son, my wife's father, was born that year in May. When the flu epidemic hit Philadelpha hard, refugees would walk out of the city into the countryside looking for help. Pearson was willing to provide food and water, but not shelter - he knew that proximity would spread the flu to his baby son and wife. Four men arrived at the farm gate and rang the bell. Pearson walked out and , when asked, set food and water next to the gate, where the men could reach it. When they finished their meal, they demanded that he provide shelter and climbed over the gate. He readied his shotgun and told them to stop - when they didn't, he killed them. He used horses to drag the bodies behind the barn into a single grave. Pearson felt justified when the family on the farm next to his offered food and shelter to refugees and all - family and refugees - died of the flu. When the flu epidemic receded, he sold the farm and moved to Sarasota, Florida in case anyone missed the dead men. Pearson started a plant nursery in Sarasota and, eventually, designed and planted Sarasota Jungle Gardens.
Now someone with a phone would video the incident and #injustice for the invader would be the viral thing
That should be a movie. Of course he made the only choice he could.
Goetz Liedtke Sir it would seem to me that this crime needs to be reported to the authorities. I'm sure those families of those murdered men would love to be able to heard what happen to them and bury them in a family plot instead of an unmarked grave.
@@JesseWorld1000 I believe it has, since Pearson has been dead for over 40 years. It may have been difficult to identify them, however, as they were transients at a time when there was little technology to identify people. I suppose a DNA analysis might find relatives, but they are likely to be remote since the families of the men were likely to have died like the neighbor family who admitted the transients.
now that is a cool story!
It's interesting how both you and Extra History ended up being motivated to make similar videos related to the renewed interest in the "Spanish" flu causing a spike in views on earlier videos on the topic. Good on you for doing so.
"The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History" by John M. Barry is a great reference for the 1918 Spanish flu.
His book on the Mississippi flood is eerily prescient on Katrina.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
Another great episode, as usual from THG. I lunged for the dictionary at the mention of 'recrudescence' - love it and keep it up!
"History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme a lot"
jim ewok Agreed. Indeed it does.. A good way to message the importance of history.
Great stuff as always. Thank you, History Guy!
I see what ya did there with the history guy mask😂😂😂
@J G at any point that you can see him look to the left of him on the desk.
I just saw that👊😁
Are they for sale?
@@sweethomeTN731 just remember these style are for "compliance" that you wear mask to reduce chance you spread the virus if you're asymptomatic. But won't prevent you from acquiring Sars-cov-2, unless finely woven no mistakes high thread count, won't come close to N95 levels of protection and threat reduction. (N95 = filtering 95% of particles size 0.3 Microns and larger.)
I like how THG changes the background displays, too. Cool ambulance on the shelf above the mask & hat. (I'm a former EMT & toy ambulance collector ;-)
Thank you, THG. Excellent work as always. The way we react to things DOES shape history.
Bang on the money THG. I read something about Bush recently. That on one of his breaks at his ranch he had read a book about the 1918 pandemic. He scared the bejesus out of him and he took loads of far sighted measures to prevent a repetition. Sadly some were stopped or not fully funded by later administrations. Stay safe.
An interesting issue, though, is that prior plans seem to have operated under the assumption that the new pandemic would be an influenza.
Do you have source for that I would to cite in some discussions. The gerrymandering of political gains using this pandemic is sickening. The political motivated people are scum to the core doesn't matter if it mass murder event or pandemic, they parade out the corpses and dance with them to farther their own political ambitious and desires. That no tragedy should go to waste before they are using the people who died to farther their agenda, irregardless of it was in their best interest what they milking the poor souls' corpses for.....
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Steven King used the "Capt. Tripps" flu in his novel The Stand. Ask most any one in the medical profession and they all say Influenza is the great leveler.
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 and two-thirds of the current administration's people who were trained to deal with pandemics by the prior Administration are gone. And the pandemic response team set up by the prior Administration was fired in 2018 by the current president who also last March proposed 10% budget cuts to the CDC and subsequently has increased those to 15% during the pandemic.
Pretty amazing and horrifying stuff.
I have a background in forecasting in math and a working experience with exponential and logistic curves.
The lowest number of fatalities I can get in my models is 142000 this year. I can't see how they're getting 60,000. We're going to pass that number in 7 or 8 days.
Hey Mr. H.G. Glad to see your doing well during all this virus stuff. Ty for the video. My grandad was born in 1900 and as a kid he used to tell me about the Spanish Flu outbreak and what he witnessed then. I will always remember his words saying how fast it was both in spreading and killing. Be safe up there Mr. H.G. Thanks again.
When you see an accounting of the fallen, remember, these are not numbers, they are people, Mothers, Fathers, Sons, and Daughters.
Please, stay safe, stay healthy.
Excellent material as always!
12:48 “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” --Paracelsus
Or put another way... just because some is good, doesn't mean more is better.
macmedic892 All things in moderation. Especially moderation.
My great aunt killed herself by overdosing on vitamins. She was taking 51 a day and it was not a pleasant death.
Perspective and hopefully context. Thanks for providing this video and some many others.
I remember bringing up the 1918 pandemic in middle school science class. We were talking about disease and transmission. No one believed me. Classmates said I was just repeating stuff I heard Donald Sutherland say in the movie “Outbreak”, which had released around that time. The following day I brought in a book to back up what I’d said. Many were still skeptical. Yea, cus I’m the eighth grader known for having a full color print shop in his basement in the mid 1990s, right?
Man, I recently had a coworker who knows I'm a history buff, ask me "Did you know the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Japan in World War Two?" This guy has a computer science degree. I have no idea how common knowledge events escape people today...
Not even the teacher?
Excellent commentary !!!
My great grandfather died of the Spanish Flu in November 1918. Left a wife and four children. I have always known about the Spanish Flu as it has effected our family for generations.
Once again, THG, another historical lesson with definite relevance to today. It’s amazing how events seem to reoccur throughout history, not so much the same events but events that are remarkably similar.
Thank You for this upload, very interesting as well as timely.
I don't know who said this first so I can't quote them "The only thing new in this World is the History we haven't read yet!"
Perspective is the key! Thanks!
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it- George Santayana, a quote I put in a book, The Importance of History and Why Learn It, I gave to my granddaughter...another quote I think is apt is Kierkegaard, who said, life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards...
I think Kiekegaurd also said that "life is a mousetrap for a mouse."
Kikigourd
My Aunt (aged 14) lived in St. Louis during the 1918 pandemic. She remembered bodies being stacked at the curbside for the truck to come by and pick them up, some were in wooden boxes and some were simply wrapped in blankets or rugs. She said it was a time she could never forget.
My mom was born in March 1918 in Saint Louis. She and her mom survived. Her mom had a hard life and lived to 96. I think the older generations were a lot tougher.
I lost a great uncle when he was gassed on Nov.11th, 1918 (yes, the last day of the war) and a great aunt earlier that year from the flu.
I love your shows! And your coffee cups not bad either! 😉👍
As a person with a BA in History, you handle science very well. I love the way you speak. I wish my college professors were half as good of an lecturer as you are. By the way, my college professors were some of the greatest instructors in the world. They were just lucky that they did not have to be compared to you. Keep up the good work. I love your take on history and because of you, I love History!
I noticed that quinine was also being used during the 1918 pandemic as hydrochoroquine is being tested now, any ideas why
Jose Oswaldo De Peralta quinine was often recommended by doctors in 1918, although generally acknowledged now to have been ineffective. The recommendation was likely because quinine was effective against malaria, whose symptoms include fever. In terms of today, some anti-malarial drugs showed early success in research against coronaviruses like MERS and SARS, and so have been a continued area of study.
Jose Oswaldo De Peralta quinine was often recommended by doctors in 1918, although generally acknowledged now to have been ineffective. The recommendation was likely because quinine was effective against malaria, whose symptoms include fever. In terms of today, some anti-malarial drugs showed early success in research against coronaviruses like MERS and SARS, and so have been a continued area of study.
Well, quinine was certainly in the pharmacopia of the time, and a huge desire to "try anything" to see if it helped. Hydroxyquinine(?) seems to be involved in delivering zinc to the cells, which seems to have some effect.
This was a brilliant piece. Very well presented.
My Grandfather died on November 15th, 1918 at the age of 29 from the Spanish flu. My father used to tell me of how deathly ill he (my father) was with the flu. He was only five years old at the time.
Excellent episode.......extremely thought provoking! Please keep up the great subject matter and stay safe.
One of the few treatments for flu back in 1918 was hydrotherapy, or warm water baths, to stimulate the immune system. Since there is no definitive medication for covid-19, there is some thought of trying hydrotherapy.
hydrotherapy didn't cure the flu in 1918 and it won't cure covid-19.
@@saintchuck9857 he didn't say cure, he said it would stimulate the immune system
Desperation drives much. Whatever dubious benefit derived from this practice might well be cancelled by the gallons of possibly contaminated water produced, unless stringent disinfection of the tub was done subsequently. There were many instances of spread of pathogens from one patient to another by use of Hubbard tanks for burn patients fifty years ago if that protocol was neglected.
@@olliefoxx7165 yes, it is the way snake oil salesmen continue to get past the FDA marketing requirements
@@saintchuck9857 I see your point just wanted to point out he didn't say it cured. Regardless some will take it that way but that's on them really.
Your content is so high quality and well made. It's amassing on how you do it.
I like your back round lamp. Reminded me when was at the university of Iowa in 1970.
tailspins1
Lava lamp...?
@@brucemitch928 YES.....I still have the original in storage.
tailspins1
Should be back in fashion now 😉
That closing statement was a real kicker I had never thought of history that way. Thanks 👍
There is an Amazing book by John M. Barry “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” which chronicles at length the work Fleming did to create antibiotics. He was influenced and in many ways pushed hard to resolve this flu. It’s very good.
This was great. I would love to see more on this, with this tone during quarantine, if you could. I believe there was a few instances of the Black Plague in Rome and it’s affects on commerce and movements of goods and how and why people responded the way they did. Some responses at the time were considered appropriate and ultimately made things worse. As I cats were destroyed in Europe during the plague. Which gave the fleas that truly transmitted the flu the opportunity to seek their nourishment from people-spreading the disease. Great work here.
Thank you for this informative history on viruses. Made me more humble and appreciative of the nurses & doctors.
Big love to my bowtie brother.
My grandfather was just graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1918. He had enlisted in the army but it was deferred while he finished his education. Boston was certainly one of the Cities that was hard hit, so he was offered the choice observing overseas in a field Hospital, or staying in Boston to help fight the flu epidemic. He chose to stay and work in Boston, but one of his superiors, a returned veteran said that he wasn't sure he had made the safest choice. He was being shown around what was then Boston City Hospital, when he saw a pretty set of ankles behind a screen, and after taking a peek at the rest of the nurse, went home and wrote in his diary that that was the girl he would marry. Luckily for him my grandmother said yes. He passed away before I was born, but I remember my grandma telling me how horrific it was, and how they put toe tags on all the patients as they came in, to save time later on as the majority of cases did not survive. She was also working in 1919 at the time of Boston's great Molasses Flood, which she said had a separate horror all its own.
An interesting anecdote re the 1918 Spanish flu: my grandfather was born in 1900 in a British concentration camp, Irene, Pretoria. His mother died there and greatgrandfather never remarried, he raised grandfather and 3 other brothers on his own. 1n 1918 he and the 4 sons moved around the district helping flu victims. Not one of them got sick, apparently greatgrandfather fed each of them a spoon full of a common household cleaner (??)every morning. This I heard from my mother about 1980, whether the information is entirely accurate cannot be confirmed as the last of the 4 brothers died during the 1970's. I put question marks behind the stuff because it is not advisable to try this, even if it was accurate, the fluid would probably have had much different ingredients at that time anyway. I have the name of the fluid but would rather withhold the info in the public interest.
Brilliant, History Guy. Great detail, analysis and summation.
I have my own options on the handling of today's issues and by some of the comments I've read others have similar OR opposing views, but the history guy is a perfect professional and just gives the facts. Well done again!
Same here Kevin.
OPPOSING views and opinions ... in the Comments section?? Well I never !!!
My parents, Aunts and Uncles lived through that Pandemic. So many people died that, being winter in Western Maryland, the dearly departed had to be put in cold storage. Coupled with the Earth being frozen and thus made for digging a Grave almost impossible. My Aunt on my Fathers side said that she remembered playing with a Sister and then she was gone. Come Spring there were a lot of Funerals. Coal Miners, which was the main business of the town, worked in close proximity to each other and no one would think of missing work unless he was very incapacitated.
In a hundred years will a historian like you write about how stupid we were for, despite being 100 years smarter in medical knowledge, we were too dang stubborn to just stay home and keep it from spreading! It’s too bad that we can’t learn from history! Great video!
Another excellent segment!
"When the doctors start acting like businessmen, who do the people turn to for doctors?"
@Tucsoncoyote 2019 Can't let it go, can you?
And the Band Played On.... the blood banks looking for profits.
Tucsoncoyote 2019 you have TDS. Hillary would have kept the country open and killed hundreds of thousands. Political Correctness has been destroying the country for years. At least I know what bathroom to use. #Trump2020
@@davidjames666 Well aren't you being sensible. USA presently has the most cases, and the worst mortality in the world. Countries who actually did something early like a lockdown are doing way better. But if you want to believe something that would have happened, but which is only in your imagination, then carry on. Hope your wonderful orange leader does not kill you or any of your family. Stay safe
Wreckedum you and your family stay safe too. good luck with Joe Biden as your candidate.
"those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it" thank you
I was having a conversation with some friends on Facebook about how little effect it seems the Spanish Flu has on culture. I think of The Great Gatsby and while the effect of the Great War was key to the book, did the influenza even get mentioned?
I wonder if part of it is that people back then were simply more used to epidemics.
I once asked my grandmother about the Spanish fluand she didn't remember much. She was nine during the epidemic and when I inquired 89. Others didn't recall alot either. It seems most folks tried to forget about it.
A very well done presentation of history; factual, timely, and poignant reminder that we are not alone. That others have been in our sad state. But to me the most important thing to remember is that the 'Spanish Flu' ended. That something endured. When you sit alone or with your friends or family, consider the millions of people who have made this journey before you. Thank you again History Guy, it was a good reminder of hope.