One frequent refrain about why we don't have to worry about a bird flu pandemic is the astounding progress we've made in medical science in the 88 years since 1918. It's a good point. In 1918 we didn't even know the causative agent.
In this spirit I offer you an excerpt from a December 1918 report of the American Public Health Association's committee on influenza, sent to me by a loyal reader:
It is the opinion of this committee that epidemic influenza is spread solely through the discharges from the nose and throat of infected persons finding their way into the nose and throat of susceptible persons. This being assumed, it is hardly necessary to wait for definite discoveries by bacteriologists as to the true cause of the disease, and action in the following directions is indicated, namely :--[I]. Break the channels of communication by which the infective agent passes from one person to another;
II. Render persons exposed to infection immune, or at least resistant, by the use of vaccines ; and
III. Increase the natural resistance of persons exposed to the disease by augmented healthfulness.
As regards I., this can be done by preventing droplet infection, by controlling spitting and the infection of the hands, as also by removing the danger arising from contaminated drinking vessels; also by supervision of food and drink, though the danger from these does not appear to be great.
Among the chief preventive measures recommended by the committee are compulsory notification, and the searching out of unreported cases by lay or professional assistants. Education of the public as to the disease, its modes of spread, and the means to prevent it; the closure of places of public assembly is recommended, but schools require special consideration ; the services in churches should be reduced to the lowest possible number ; theatres, picture palaces, and the like, should be dealt with from the point of view of efficiency of their ventilation and general sanitation. Public funerals should be forbidden. The wearing of masks should be compulsory in hospitals, also for barbers and dentists during epidemic times. (quoted in British Ministry of Health report on the 1918 pandemic, p. 326)
Scientific progress is a wonderful thing.
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Disheartening, isn't it?
But did they have hand sanitizer in 1918? I. Don't. Think. So.
S. O. A. P. and W. A. T. E. R.
Edmund - No, they didn't, but as Greg points out they had soap and water, which, while not a convenient, is as effective.
For the rest of it, the recommendations are all too familiar. For all of our "progress", the advice hasn't changed a hell of a lot in the intervening 88 years
We have "sneeze in your elbow" internet videos, now. And we can make a "case for early school closure" (based on careful analysis of 1918 and also computer models, for what they are worth). What other things are we better off now than we were then?
And, also, why is lab science better than street science? Whatever works!