1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Okay, if 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: you have missed our previous episode, we are revisiting the 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: flu pandemic, which we previously covered on the show. In 6 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: that episode, looking back on it, it's mostly just it's 7 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: an overview of the disease itself and it's international spread 8 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: that's most of its focus. That's not at all how 9 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: I would have approached that topic today after having lived 10 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: through the COVID nineteen pandemic for the last year. So 11 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 1: in part one of this episode, we talked a lot 12 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 1: about masks, uh and how they were used in the 13 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: flu pandemic and the general lack of an organized national 14 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: response in the United States. When I started on this, 15 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: I did not think those two things were going to 16 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: fill up an entire episode, but they did so uh 17 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: we made it a two part or I made it 18 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: a two parter. Today we are taking a shorter look 19 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: at a wider range of things that have caught my 20 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: attention over the last year and raised my curiosity about 21 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: how they compared to what happened in nineteen eighteen and 22 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 1: really nineteen nineteen and a little into nineteen twenty. Also, so, 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: something that's become increasingly clear over the course of the 24 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic is that the virus spreads easily in 25 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: poorly ventilated areas. We have seen outdoor vaccine clinics and 26 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: outdoor dining and schools having class outside or even just 27 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: keeping windows open, plus discussions about what to do in 28 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: places where the windows cannot be opened, and at what 29 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: point the enclosure around an outdoor dining location isn't any 30 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: different from being indoors. Yeah, that's that's been a whole 31 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: process to Yeah, I feel like us you have been 32 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,640 Speaker 1: asleep for the last twelve months. You have heard some 33 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: or all of these conversations in the public square, by 34 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:12,120 Speaker 1: which I mean everywhere everywhere. Yeah. So there was also 35 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: a big focus on ventilation in the US, and really 36 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:22,480 Speaker 1: even a bigger focus. The Anti Tuberculosis League distributed signs 37 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: that read quote keep your bedroom windows open, prevent influenza, deeumonia, tuberculosis. 38 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: As we noted in Part one, San Francisco ordered the 39 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,239 Speaker 1: street cars to keep their windows open unless it was raining, 40 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: and the Board of health recommended that anything that could 41 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: not be moved outside in San Francisco be canceled. One 42 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:47,600 Speaker 1: of the very most common public health recommendations nationwide during 43 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: the nineteen pandemic was to get plenty of fresh air 44 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: and to avoid crowded, stuffy indoor spaces. Some of this 45 00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: was a response to the pandemic, but it was also 46 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: connected to an ongoing overall trend of seeing fresh air 47 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 1: as necessary to good health all the time, even when 48 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: there was not a disease outbreak. The fresh air movement, 49 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: established in the mid nineteenth century, was focused not just 50 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: on the health benefits of fresh air in general, but 51 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: also on taking children from urban areas, many of whom 52 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: were living in poverty, for outdoor experiences in the country 53 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: where they could breathe fresh, wholesome air. So at first, 54 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: this movement was rooted in the idea that my asthmas 55 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: or bad air were what caused disease, But around the 56 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: eighteen eighties, medical science built on the work of people 57 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: like Louis Pasteur and Robert Coke to conclude that microscopic pathogens, 58 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 1: rather than bad air, were what caused disease. But since 59 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: some of these pathogens seemed to be airborne. We now 60 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: know that some of them are airborne. Even as the 61 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: myasthma theory fell out of favor, this focus on fresh 62 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: air really did not. Fresh air also was not just 63 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: a preventative. It was also used as a treatment for 64 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: respiratory diseases, in particular tuberculosis. I feel like you see 65 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: this in all kinds of of older movies and books, 66 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: where it's like they took ill so they were sent 67 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,359 Speaker 1: to the shore for fresh air. We have had it 68 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:20,680 Speaker 1: come up in many episodes of the show when we 69 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,919 Speaker 1: talked about people's biographies. The first really effective treatment for 70 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: tuberculosis was the antibiotics streptomycin, developed in nineteen For decades 71 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: before that point, tuberculosis treatment typically involved being sent to 72 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 1: a sanatorium, where people got plenty of rest and ate 73 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: nutritious food, and got lots of fresh air, including sleeping outside. 74 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: The idea that ventilation was generally necessary for healthy bedrooms 75 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:51,479 Speaker 1: and other parts of your home that was also well 76 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: established by the late eighteen hundreds. For example, an eighteen 77 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,480 Speaker 1: eighty nine article in Ladies Home Journal, which was written 78 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: by Kate Ups and Clark read quote, windows in sleeping 79 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: rooms should be kept wide open as much of the 80 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,119 Speaker 1: time as possible when the apartments are unoccupied, and while 81 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: other chamber works should be done as soon as it 82 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,680 Speaker 1: can be managed. After breakfast, Beds should be left to 83 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: air several hours if they can be conveniently allowed. The 84 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: air in bedrooms is often obscurely foul because the bed 85 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: does not get proper airing. People also slept on sleeping 86 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:33,800 Speaker 1: porches or intense Wealthy people who had enough room for 87 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: it had just entire open air bedrooms built onto their houses, 88 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:44,360 Speaker 1: who are living Rivendell style. I also, um just really 89 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: love the phrase obscurely foul, and I'm going to claim 90 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: that for my autobiography. UM. One article that has gone 91 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: viral during the COVID nineteen pandemic contends that steam radiators, 92 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:58,960 Speaker 1: which are prevalent in a lot of older buildings in 93 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: the US, trace back to the pandemic. The basic idea 94 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 1: was that the radiator would intentionally make apartments and other 95 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: homes too hot to be comfortable. The solution open the window, 96 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,359 Speaker 1: which would both cool things off and bring in fresh 97 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,600 Speaker 1: air from outside. Yeah. Part of this whole argument is 98 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,240 Speaker 1: that the reason that radiators are often under the windows 99 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,719 Speaker 1: is because you were supposed to open the windows, but 100 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: really also like that was the coldest part of most rooms, 101 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: so it made sense to put the radiator there. And 102 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,720 Speaker 1: also like the space under a window didn't have a 103 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: lot of other use a lot of the time, like 104 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 1: definitely more complicated than you're just supposed to leave the 105 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: window open. However, in addition to all that, the steam 106 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 1: radiator was invented in the mid nineteenth century, and over 107 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,719 Speaker 1: the next couple of decades they were refined to a 108 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,280 Speaker 1: design that still exists in many homes today. They are 109 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,719 Speaker 1: in my home here, in the home I lived in 110 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: before this one. They were already an increasingly popular method 111 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: of home heating well before the nineteen eighteen pandemic started. 112 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: It is definitely true that a lot of these earlier 113 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: radiator systems really overheated and in some cases still overheat 114 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: people's living spaces. But another big reason for that is 115 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: that the first thermostat used for home heating was not 116 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: introduced until nineteen oh six. Before that, and then until 117 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: people retrofitted their older systems with new thermostats, people had 118 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: to adjust their furnaces and boilers manually, and in a 119 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: lot of multi unit buildings. There was just no way 120 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: for people in individual units to adjust their boilers and 121 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: their radiators at all. So, while it's possible that the 122 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: pandemic accelerated some of these strands that were already under way, 123 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:53,720 Speaker 1: radiators and fresh air as a health necessity like those 124 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: were already really well established. Also, just in case you 125 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:00,559 Speaker 1: go looking around for it, snopes dot com has rated 126 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: this claim about steam radiators in the nineteen eighteen pandemic 127 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 1: as true. But most of the articles claiming that the 128 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen flu pandemic led to too hot radiator systems 129 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: all traced back to the same person, and we haven't 130 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: been able to confirm this idea through any other sources. Yeah, 131 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: there's like one person who's making that argument from what 132 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 1: I can tell, and a lot of other places picking 133 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 1: that same argument up. Moving on, during COVID nineteen, we 134 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: have seen a huge trend and people working from home 135 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 1: if their jobs are conducive to doing that. There really 136 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 1: were not nearly as many jobs that met that criteria 137 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen, So a bigger trend in nineteen eighteen 138 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: was people just not going to work even though they 139 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: were not being paid because they were afraid of getting 140 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: sick and dying. In a lot of industries, concrete numbers 141 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:56,079 Speaker 1: on this are hard to track, but anecdotally, absentee is 142 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 1: um was really high in businesses that weren't shut down 143 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: because of the pandemic. One industry that did keep good 144 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 1: records with shipyards. Shipyard workers were essential, especially in the 145 00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: context of the war, and many shipyards had medical staff 146 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:14,160 Speaker 1: on site, even as the pandemic led to such an 147 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: enormous shortage of medical workers. But in New England shipyards 148 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:22,960 Speaker 1: the rate of absentee is um was often around fifty. Yeah, 149 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,120 Speaker 1: some of those surely would have been folks who were sick, 150 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:27,200 Speaker 1: but others were folks who were like not, I'm not 151 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: not doing it and other news. Remember when the COVID 152 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic started and nobody could find toilet paper or flour. Yes, 153 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:38,679 Speaker 1: and there are still things I would want from the 154 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: grocery store that like just did still have that day 155 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,559 Speaker 1: they're out of Uh. There were also shortages in nineteen eighteen, 156 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:48,760 Speaker 1: as I started to wonder, but it was really not 157 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: necessarily because of the flu pandemic. Since the pandemics started 158 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: near the end of World War One, A lot of 159 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: basic necessities were already being rationed, so in general, things 160 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: like food and fuel were already in short supply because 161 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: of the war, so it's likely that existing shortages made 162 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: the pandemic more difficult, rather than the pandemic causing a 163 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: lot of shortages. Similarly, it's kind of hard to pinpoint 164 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,920 Speaker 1: the impact of the pandemic on the US economy or 165 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 1: the global economy because it is largely overshadowed by the 166 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,840 Speaker 1: economic impact of the war and then demobilization when the 167 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:29,920 Speaker 1: war ended. Yeah, that's kind of like a thing where 168 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,520 Speaker 1: the onion has two layers, but the layers have fused 169 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:34,839 Speaker 1: and kind of crossed over into one another. You can't 170 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:39,319 Speaker 1: really keeel them apart. The general conclusion is like the 171 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: pandemics impact on the economy, which is a nebulous thing, 172 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:51,600 Speaker 1: was more shorter term and and more confined to specific 173 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:57,040 Speaker 1: industries than like the total wartime and then demobilization impact. 174 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 1: One actual shortage that was connected to you the pandemic 175 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:04,440 Speaker 1: was coal. Coal production in the US dropped by as 176 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:08,720 Speaker 1: much as a sixth due to illnesses and absenteeism, and 177 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: this in turn created problems for the steel industry, railroad shipping, 178 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: and for heating and electricity, leading to a series of 179 00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: government inquiries into the matter. In some cities, health authorities 180 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,160 Speaker 1: took steps to make sure that quarantined families had enough 181 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,080 Speaker 1: coal to heat their homes. So aside from this, there 182 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: was huge demand for every over the counter cold and 183 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:37,320 Speaker 1: flu remedy in existence, along with disinfectants. None of that 184 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 1: seems really surprising to mean. People bought up all the 185 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:42,559 Speaker 1: stock at their local pharmacies and drug stores of all 186 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:47,080 Speaker 1: of these products. There was also a massive run on atomizers, 187 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,280 Speaker 1: which people would use to miss themselves and the people 188 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,679 Speaker 1: around them and the environment where they were. Sometimes these 189 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,000 Speaker 1: were just spilled with water to keep the nasal passages moist, 190 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:02,280 Speaker 1: but there were also anti septics and supposedly anti flu 191 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: preparations that people would missed with their atomizers. So we 192 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:08,840 Speaker 1: are going to take a quick sponsor break, and then 193 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:20,280 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some vaccines. We mentioned in 194 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: part one of this episode that there was no vaccine 195 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:30,559 Speaker 1: for influenza in and that before the pandemic, researchers thought 196 00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:34,680 Speaker 1: the culprit for the flu was a bacterium called Piper's 197 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: bacillus that was also known as Bacillus influenze. However, that 198 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: lack of knowledge did not stop health authorities from trying 199 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 1: to create vaccines and vaccinate people against the disease in 200 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:51,560 Speaker 1: en and in some cases these vaccines were meant to 201 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: try to prevent bacterial pneumonia. This was a secondary infection 202 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:59,200 Speaker 1: that did cause a lot of the pandemics, deaths and 203 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: other situations, though doctors really believe that they were targeting 204 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: the actual flu with their vaccines, or they were just 205 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: desperate enough to save people's lives that they were willing 206 00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 1: to pretty much try anything. Hundreds of thousands of doses 207 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 1: of these vaccines, possibly more than a million doses were 208 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: administered during the pandemic. The federal government and the US 209 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: Public Health Service weren't really involved with this and didn't 210 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: create any kind of national development, testing, or distribution plan 211 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 1: for these vaccines. Instead, multiple different researchers and institutes were 212 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 1: working on this as quickly as they could, including the 213 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:41,560 Speaker 1: Rockefeller Institute, the Pasteur Institute, and the Army Medical School. 214 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: State and local health departments were on the case as well. 215 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: William H. Park at the New York City Health Department 216 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: developed a vaccine that used heat killed fifers Bacsilus. In 217 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 1: early October nineteen eighteen, the Army Medical School created one 218 00:13:56,520 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: as well in Philadelphia. Doctor see why White created a 219 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: vaccine that combined killed bassillous influenze and two different strains 220 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: of new macaca. The list goes on and on. Over All, 221 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: the methods for creating and testing these vaccines were not 222 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: scientifically very rigorous. Even an established research centers. Timelines were 223 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: rushed and abbreviated. The very basic steps of killing a 224 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: bacterium and making it into an injectable form were not 225 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,400 Speaker 1: all that difficult. So all kinds of people, with varying 226 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,080 Speaker 1: levels of skill and experience, we're all working on this, 227 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: and in some cases we're making vaccines that were then 228 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: actually administered to people. These vaccines could not prevent the 229 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,160 Speaker 1: flu though, since they had nothing to do with the 230 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:48,640 Speaker 1: influenza virus, but they could potentially prevent bacterial pneumonia. Studies 231 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: into whether they actually did were also all over the place. 232 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,600 Speaker 1: Article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases looked at thirteen 233 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:01,720 Speaker 1: different vaccine studies that took place during the pandemic. None 234 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,880 Speaker 1: of them were double blind or randomized, and their methods 235 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:09,360 Speaker 1: were inconsistent, but Overall, this report estimated that the vaccines 236 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,840 Speaker 1: used among civilian populations were thirty four percent effective at 237 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:18,200 Speaker 1: preventing secondary pneumonia and showed a forty two percent reduction 238 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,680 Speaker 1: in case fatality rate. In military populations, those numbers were 239 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: fifty seven percent and sevent Those thirteen studies do not 240 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: represent all the different vaccines that were in use, though, 241 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:34,640 Speaker 1: and some of the papers that were published at the 242 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: time paint a far less rosy picture than that, one 243 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: that suggests that some of the vaccines did have some efficacy, 244 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: at least in treating secondary infections. For example, in nineteen nineteen, 245 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results 246 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,200 Speaker 1: of a vaccination effort using a vaccine that was supplied 247 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: by Dr. F. O. Tawny, who was the chief of 248 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: the laboratory of the Cargo Health Department. The recipients were 249 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:07,320 Speaker 1: all in patient residence at a mental hospital, so that 250 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: had some medical ethics questions as well. This vaccine contained 251 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 1: Bacillus influenzae, four different types of new moccoci and two 252 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:23,680 Speaker 1: types of Streptococcus. It's a lot in this case. More 253 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:29,680 Speaker 1: vaccinated people developed influenza and secondary pneumonia, and more vaccinated 254 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 1: people died than unvaccinated people. The American Medical Association was 255 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 1: generally pretty pessimistic about the efficacy and the promise of 256 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 1: these vaccines during the pandemic, and just to be clear, 257 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: the preponderance of different vaccines in which were put into 258 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,040 Speaker 1: use just a few months after the disease started to 259 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: spread was largely because the process of developing and testing 260 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 1: a vaccine wasn't yet standardized, and the development and testing 261 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: procedures that it exists we're often skipped over because the 262 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:06,440 Speaker 1: situation was so dire, but that is not why vaccines 263 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: for COVID nineteen have been developed surprisingly quickly. The COVID 264 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:13,879 Speaker 1: nineteen vaccines have built on years, or in some cases, decades, 265 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:19,159 Speaker 1: of existing research into viruses, vaccines, and manufacturing methods. This 266 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:23,280 Speaker 1: includes research into two other coronaviruses, which cause stars and 267 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:27,120 Speaker 1: mers RNA. Vaccine technology has also been in the news 268 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:29,120 Speaker 1: a lot, but it's been going on way before this 269 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: for more than a decade. Yeah. A big reason things 270 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: have gone so quickly with COVID vaccines is money. Governments 271 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,879 Speaker 1: and philanthropists have funded vaccine research. Governments have also pre 272 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 1: ordered vaccines in bulk so that pharmaceutical companies are not 273 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,679 Speaker 1: running the financial risk of making a vaccine that it 274 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: turns out nobody actually wants to buy. The influx of 275 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,679 Speaker 1: funding has meant that pharmaceutical companies are willing and financially 276 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:00,640 Speaker 1: able to work a lot faster and to run multiple 277 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 1: trials in parallel. That is something that would go a 278 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:09,520 Speaker 1: lot more slowly without all that money. Okay, So moving on. 279 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,159 Speaker 1: Something that didn't come up at all zero times in 280 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: our original episode on the nineteen eighteen flu was the 281 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: fact that there was a mid term election in nineteen eighteen. 282 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 1: And uh, it seems like a little bit of a 283 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: weird omission having lived through November. But if you're looking 284 00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:30,040 Speaker 1: at it not having had the hind sight of an 285 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 1: election year during a pandemic, it just may not be 286 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:37,160 Speaker 1: the thing that bubbles up now. In nineteen eighteen, voting 287 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:41,639 Speaker 1: in general was most accessible to white men in theory, 288 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: under the fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, quote, the rights 289 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,280 Speaker 1: of citizens of the United States to vote shall not 290 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,080 Speaker 1: be denied or abridged by the United States or by 291 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,679 Speaker 1: any State on account of race, color, or previous condition 292 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:59,200 Speaker 1: of service sude. But in practice, discriminatory voting laws made 293 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:01,959 Speaker 1: it much harder or even impossible for most people of 294 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,640 Speaker 1: color to vote. Indigenous people and many Asian people were 295 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: not considered citizens, and the Nineteenth Amendment had not been 296 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:11,600 Speaker 1: passed yet, so women had the right to vote in 297 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: some places but not in others. In November of nineteen eighteen, 298 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: the pandemic had largely peaked in the eastern part of 299 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: the US, and many Eastern cities and states had returned 300 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,679 Speaker 1: or were returning to business as usual, so effects on 301 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: the election there were pretty minimal, but in the Midwest 302 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: and the West Coast, the pandemic flew was still spreading rapidly. 303 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: Especially in these areas, candidates did a lot more of 304 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: their campaigning by mail and gave interviews in newspapers. This 305 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,640 Speaker 1: was especially true in places where large gatherings and door 306 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:46,919 Speaker 1: to door canvassing were banned for the sake of public health, 307 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: and sometimes these bands led to accusations of partisan interference. 308 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,359 Speaker 1: For example, Democratic Party leaders in New York were outraged 309 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: when an all Republican board of health ordered the Democrat 310 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: at a candidate, Alfred E. Smith, could only give a 311 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:07,040 Speaker 1: planned speech if it were moved to an open air location. 312 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 1: As for election day itself. People in high risk areas 313 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:15,119 Speaker 1: tried to time their trip to the polls to avoid crowds. 314 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: Some of the votes in Salt Lake City were cast 315 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:21,120 Speaker 1: intense in some places faced a shortage of poll workers 316 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:25,199 Speaker 1: because they were sick. And since this was happening in 317 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: Western states, where mask requirements were already a lot more common, 318 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:33,360 Speaker 1: a lot of jurisdictions specifically required voters to wear masks 319 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:37,000 Speaker 1: to the polls. For example, the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, 320 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:41,080 Speaker 1: Colorado published an article titled quote Precautions at the Polls 321 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:45,399 Speaker 1: Ordered to Prevent the spread of Plague, which advised people 322 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: to wear the standard red cross mask, not crowd polling places, 323 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:54,680 Speaker 1: and refrain from assembling in groups for political discussions, which 324 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: I kind of love. And Toledo, Ohio police reinforce the 325 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,919 Speaker 1: need to close the saloons, restaurants and other public places 326 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,239 Speaker 1: on election day and night, and probably some people just 327 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:10,679 Speaker 1: didn't vote or in some other way didn't participate in 328 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,680 Speaker 1: the election. In Oakland, California, a quarter of the election 329 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:19,120 Speaker 1: board resigned because of fear of the pandemic. Nationwide, voter 330 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,919 Speaker 1: turnout was about ten percent lower than the previous two 331 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 1: midterm elections. Although some of the drop is probably because 332 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: so many men were away at war, and in some places, 333 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,639 Speaker 1: flu cases increased sharply after election day, something that happened 334 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: again in the wake of celebrations following the November eleventh, 335 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen Armistice. We are going to take a quick 336 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 1: sponsor break before talking about some of the disparities and 337 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: how the nineteen eighteen flew affected different communities across the 338 00:21:56,359 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: board Around the world, the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic was 339 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: hardest on the poorest people. Although the virus could and 340 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,399 Speaker 1: did strike people of all social and economic classes, poor 341 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: people were the most likely to get sick and the 342 00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 1: most likely to die. Data on how different racial and 343 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:18,680 Speaker 1: ethnic groups were affected is spottier. Even in places where 344 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,440 Speaker 1: overall record keeping was generally good, the sheer magnitude of 345 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,920 Speaker 1: illnesses and deaths often overwhelmed the system entirely. In most 346 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,919 Speaker 1: of the US, demographic data was less granular than it 347 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:34,359 Speaker 1: often is today, with populations grouped as white and non white. 348 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: But even with those caveats, it's clear that some of 349 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: the same disparities we've seen during the COVID nineteen pandemic 350 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: we're also there in nineteen eighteen. This really isn't something 351 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,240 Speaker 1: that we talked about much when we discussed the pandemic 352 00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:52,840 Speaker 1: back in. One exception was a brief mention of the 353 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: fact that the pandemic was incredibly devastating to the Inupiat 354 00:22:57,119 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 1: population of Alaska, killing as any as nine percent of 355 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 1: the residents, and some of those communities. The pandemic was 356 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: particularly deadly among other Alaska Native people's as well. This 357 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: was not confined to Alaska. Globally, Indigenous people were some 358 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,879 Speaker 1: of the most profoundly affected by the nineteen eighteen pandemic. 359 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,639 Speaker 1: Death Rates were also particularly high among Inuit peoples in 360 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,719 Speaker 1: Northern Canada and Greenland. The same was true for Aboriginal 361 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,840 Speaker 1: peoples in Northern Australia, Maori in New Zealand, and Indigenous 362 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:34,840 Speaker 1: peoples from several Pacific islands, including Western Samoa, Nauru, Tahiti, 363 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,920 Speaker 1: and Tonga. Looking at death rates by continent is tricky 364 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: because within one continent there could be a huge variation 365 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: from country to country or region to region, and taking 366 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: a continent wide view of the pandemic also excludes the 367 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:54,560 Speaker 1: Pacific islands that we just mentioned, where the death toll 368 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:59,760 Speaker 1: was truly catastrophic. However, some sources do look at this 369 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,840 Speaker 1: data by continent, and when you look at death tolls 370 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,240 Speaker 1: that way, the place with the highest average mortality rate 371 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: in the world was Sub Saharan Africa, in addition to 372 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:16,200 Speaker 1: factors stemming from things like economics, resources, racism, and colonialism. 373 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,080 Speaker 1: A possible reason for this was that the pandemic's first 374 00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,879 Speaker 1: wave in the first half of nineteen eighteen mostly seems 375 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,280 Speaker 1: to have stopped in northern Africa and a small area 376 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:30,399 Speaker 1: in southeastern Africa, without nearly as much spread elsewhere on 377 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:35,719 Speaker 1: the continent. Then, the virus mutated before it's particularly lethal 378 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,520 Speaker 1: second wave around October of that year, so when the 379 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:41,680 Speaker 1: more lethal strain of the virus made its way to 380 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: Sub Saharan Africa, mostly introduced through European ships involved in 381 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,800 Speaker 1: World War One, most people had no immunity to it, 382 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: and it spread particularly easily and the United States specifically, 383 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 1: the mortality rate for indigenous people was four times high 384 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,199 Speaker 1: eier than that of the general population, although those numbers 385 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:08,240 Speaker 1: did vary widely among different indigenous tribes and nations. Black 386 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: people in the United States had a lower mortality rate 387 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,639 Speaker 1: overall than white people during the pandemic. According to a 388 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,439 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen article in the International Journal of Environmental Research 389 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: in Public Health, nineteen eighteen was the only year in 390 00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:28,120 Speaker 1: the twentieth century when that was the case. However, black 391 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:32,199 Speaker 1: Americans had a higher case fatality rate that white Americans 392 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: did in the nineteen eighteen pandemic, and this suggests that 393 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,680 Speaker 1: black Americans were somewhat less likely to contract the disease, 394 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,200 Speaker 1: but more likely to become seriously ill and die when 395 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 1: they did. The exact cause of this combination is not 396 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,640 Speaker 1: entirely clear, but it was surely affected by racism within 397 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,600 Speaker 1: the health care system, including doctors and hospitals that did 398 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,960 Speaker 1: not treat black patients even in the middle of a pandemic. 399 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,919 Speaker 1: There were a few places in the US and around 400 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,639 Speaker 1: the world that managed to protect themselves from the nineteen 401 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,879 Speaker 1: eighteen pandemic or at least severely limit its impact. A 402 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: two thousand and six report by the University of Michigan 403 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,960 Speaker 1: Medical School looked at seven communities in the US that 404 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: didn't have many flu cases during the pandemic's deadly second 405 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:23,160 Speaker 1: wave and also had no more than one death. They 406 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,480 Speaker 1: were the San Francisco Naval Training Station at your Babuena 407 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: Island that's in California, of course, Gunnison, Colorado, Princeton University 408 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:36,240 Speaker 1: in New Jersey, the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind 409 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:41,480 Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, Trudeau Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Seranic Lake, New York, 410 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: Brent Mark College in Pennsylvania, and Fletcher, Vermont. It is 411 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: not entirely clear why these communities were relatively spared, though 412 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: most of them implemented the same types of non pharmaceutical 413 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,320 Speaker 1: interventions that we talked about in Part one, things like 414 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 1: masks and social distancing and hand hygiene, inclosing schools and 415 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,879 Speaker 1: banning large gatherings. In other words, they were doing a 416 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,080 Speaker 1: lot of the same basic things that a lot of 417 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:13,000 Speaker 1: other places were also doing, but with apparently better results. 418 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:19,720 Speaker 1: But some of these communities also showed some relatively risky behaviors. Fletcher, Vermont, 419 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,320 Speaker 1: for example, held a Red Cross dance in September, and 420 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,440 Speaker 1: some of its residents traveled to Essex, Vermont for a fair. 421 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,160 Speaker 1: A soldier from Camp Devon's, Massachusetts also traveled to Fletcher 422 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,359 Speaker 1: for his wedding while Camp Devons was in the middle 423 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,639 Speaker 1: of an outbreak that infected almost one third of the camp. 424 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,600 Speaker 1: But somehow the flu nearly skipped past Fletcher entirely. Okay, 425 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: that wedding part especially feels almost like, you know, a 426 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,919 Speaker 1: twenty super spreader headline in the making. So among the 427 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,199 Speaker 1: report's conclusions, quote the escape of a community from the 428 00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: brunt of the pandemic was likely the result of multiple 429 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: factors in the cases we studied, not least of which 430 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: included good fortune, viral normalization patterns, and geographical separation. We 431 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,399 Speaker 1: should not be seduced into thinking we can easily translate 432 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:16,199 Speaker 1: these historical examples into contemporary situations. Beyond the scope of 433 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: this study. There were some island communities that were able 434 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,840 Speaker 1: to delay the pandemic at least somewhat. American Samoa required 435 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 1: all ships to quarantine for five days, and actually kept 436 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:31,159 Speaker 1: that requirement in place until nine. By the time the 437 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: flu was introduced there, it had mutated into a milder form, 438 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:40,400 Speaker 1: and American Samoa reported no deaths. American Samoa and Western Samoa, 439 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: now the independent State of Samoa, are part of the 440 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: same island chain, and as we noted earlier, Western Samoa 441 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: was particularly hard hit. More than a fifth of its 442 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: population died of the disease after it was introduced by 443 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: people aboard the steamship to Loon. The harbor Master and 444 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,080 Speaker 1: Appia Western Samoa had not realized that there was an 445 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:03,840 Speaker 1: outbreak at the ship's departure point of Auckland, New Zealand, 446 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:09,600 Speaker 1: and had allowed people to disembark. Australia also quarantined strictly 447 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 1: every ship that arrived through most of the pandemic, but 448 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 1: in January of nineteen nineteen, disease spread from ship to shore, 449 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 1: possibly through medical workers who were treating six sailors. The 450 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,640 Speaker 1: strain of the virus that spread around Australia in January 451 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,239 Speaker 1: and February of nineteen nineteen was less lethal than the 452 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:33,560 Speaker 1: one that had peaked around the world the prior October. Consequently, 453 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 1: Australia had one of the lowest death rates in the 454 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: world two point seven per one thousand people, but that 455 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: still meant that at least fifteen thousand people died. The 456 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: island of Tasmania was even more isolated and did not 457 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,959 Speaker 1: start seeing cases at all until August of nineteen nineteen. 458 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,960 Speaker 1: Other places that saw relatively low mortality rates included Denmark 459 00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 1: and China, although it's not entirely clear why. Yeah, there's 460 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: a lot of not quite sure. Like some of the 461 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,719 Speaker 1: first cases that are usually noted as like these were 462 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: the first pandemic flu cases were in UH in the 463 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:16,680 Speaker 1: United States at Fort Riley, Kansas. But there's some some 464 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: suggestion that possibly this basic same virus was circulating in 465 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: a lot of places earlier, and that it just mutated 466 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,480 Speaker 1: into a form that became more noteworthy at that point. UM. 467 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: And so one idea is that maybe some of these 468 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 1: other places that had relatively low numbers of cases had 469 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:35,800 Speaker 1: been some of the places that this earlier, much more 470 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: mild version of the of the flu was circulating, so 471 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:42,719 Speaker 1: people already had some immunity. One last thing before we 472 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,360 Speaker 1: close out these episodes, I know, during the COVID nineteen pandemic, 473 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:47,880 Speaker 1: a lot of us have been trying to find ways 474 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 1: to stay active while also not really being able to 475 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,640 Speaker 1: get out much UH. This was also true obviously in 476 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: nineteen nine, and not just because people were trying to 477 00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: reduce their exposure to other people. It was also because, 478 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: as this was during World War One and a lot 479 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: of people were being held as prisoners of war or 480 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 1: otherwise being interned around the world. Joseph Hubertus Pilates was 481 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 1: a German national who was living in Britain during World 482 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,680 Speaker 1: War One. After the war started, he was interned as 483 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: an enemy alien at Nacolo Camp on the Isle of Man. 484 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:23,320 Speaker 1: Polates was an athlete, a gymnast, and a boxer, and 485 00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,520 Speaker 1: he worked out ways to try to keep himself and 486 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: his fellow internees fit while they were incarcerated. For the 487 00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:31,200 Speaker 1: rest of his life, Pilates would claim that when the 488 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,600 Speaker 1: pandemic struck, no one at Nacolo Camp who was doing 489 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:38,120 Speaker 1: his exercises got sick. Of course, there's a lot in 490 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,000 Speaker 1: this story that's a little hard to pin down today. 491 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:45,720 Speaker 1: There were definitely flew outbreaks at Nacolo, and the so 492 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: called enemy aliens at the camp were blamed for introducing 493 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,520 Speaker 1: the virus to the rest of the Isle of Man. 494 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: That's probably as much about xenophobia as it was about 495 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:00,480 Speaker 1: people actually being brought to this camp. But Knocolay was 496 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,320 Speaker 1: also divided up into multiple compounds that were pretty isolated 497 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,480 Speaker 1: from each other, and it's not entirely clear if there 498 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 1: was an outbreak in the compound where Polates was actually housed. 499 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:15,040 Speaker 1: This did become part of the origin story of the 500 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: Polates exercise method, though I'm sure many people are doing 501 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: it at home because it is easy to do on 502 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,960 Speaker 1: your own in your house. You don't need a reformer. 503 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: I'm riding an exercise bike and playing ring Fit Adventure. 504 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,120 Speaker 1: I'm just lifting my cats fifty times a day now, 505 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,959 Speaker 1: I'm kidding. Yeah. For a while I was doing nothing 506 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:42,760 Speaker 1: except walking outside when the weather permitted, and then as 507 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: as it got a lot snowier and colder here in Massachusetts, 508 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,840 Speaker 1: the weather was not permitting nearly as often, and I 509 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,320 Speaker 1: was like, I feel bad never moving. I need to 510 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:56,840 Speaker 1: address this. Yes, I am very thankful that we have 511 00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: had a treadmill in our house for a long time, 512 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: because it's been really the um. You know what else 513 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: is handy? Yeah? Listener mail? You got some? I do? 514 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,239 Speaker 1: I do? I have listener mail? Okay, this is This 515 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:10,560 Speaker 1: is a reference to an episode from quite some time ago, 516 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 1: but it's honestly one of my favorite episodes and I 517 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 1: love it every time we get an email like this. 518 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,840 Speaker 1: This is from Jennifer Um. Jennifer has um the subject 519 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,240 Speaker 1: line of this email Thanks to you, I found out 520 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,840 Speaker 1: my mom was a smuggler. Nice uh, And so the 521 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: email begins, No, seriously, dear Holly and Tracy, longtime listener, 522 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:32,840 Speaker 1: never a writer of fan mail, but this has been 523 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:35,320 Speaker 1: long overdue. I wanted to thank you for your episode 524 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 1: back in TWI Butter versus Margarine. I grew up in Wisconsin, 525 00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 1: but had never learned about the banning of Margarine. Perhaps 526 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: some folks were still nursing grudges with a smiley emog 527 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,520 Speaker 1: But what was truly the delight of the episode was 528 00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,760 Speaker 1: the conversation that led to with my mom, now eight four. 529 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,200 Speaker 1: I asked her if she remembered the Marjarine band, Oh yes, 530 00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: and what she thought of it. She was quiet for 531 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,600 Speaker 1: a moment and then mentioned that she used to drive 532 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,000 Speaker 1: ladies from Church down to Illinois in her car, and 533 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,080 Speaker 1: they used to fill up the trunk with their OLEO 534 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: purchases and then drive back north. My mother was a smuggler, 535 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: and I'd never have known it if it weren't for you, 536 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,359 Speaker 1: So thank you. I've attached a picture of her. You'd 537 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,680 Speaker 1: never guessed this high school princess was going to turn rebel, 538 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:23,560 Speaker 1: would you. Also? I've been working on my family genealogy 539 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 1: and my great grandfather, Mom's grandpa was a dairy farmer, 540 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,279 Speaker 1: which I knew. What I didn't know is that he 541 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,960 Speaker 1: helped lead what I am personally calling the Great Swiss 542 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,680 Speaker 1: Cheese Rebellion of nineteen thirty six. It turns out the 543 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: Feds were demanding Swiss cheese be made with a certain 544 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 1: percentage of butterfat, and the farmers were saying that percentage 545 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,759 Speaker 1: was terrible, and they demanded it be changed to the 546 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,120 Speaker 1: percent they thought made a more delicious Swiss cheese. They 547 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,759 Speaker 1: withheld their milk until demands were met. I'm pleased to 548 00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 1: report they won, and that their specific Swiss cheese butterfat 549 00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: percentage is now codified in US law Title on Section 550 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,640 Speaker 1: one three three point one nine five of the FDA's 551 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,359 Speaker 1: Regulations on Food for Human Consumption. Apparently I come from 552 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: a line of daring dairy ne'er do wells, and I'm 553 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:13,960 Speaker 1: so happy to know this. Thank you again and again 554 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: for these shows. They are fun to listen to you 555 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,520 Speaker 1: and they have sparked some great family conversations. Cheers, ladies, 556 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: keep up the great work. Thank you so much, Jennifer 557 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: for this for this email. I love both of these 558 00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:29,080 Speaker 1: stories so much. I love the whole weirdness about the 559 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,360 Speaker 1: fight between Butter and Margarine, and I love the Olio 560 00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,399 Speaker 1: smuggling and I love the rebellion over how much butter 561 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:41,480 Speaker 1: fat is in the Swiss cheese listen always more, Always more. Um. 562 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,279 Speaker 1: Last night, my spouse was cooking our dinner and I 563 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,319 Speaker 1: saw him put an entire third of a stick of 564 00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 1: butter and the carrots. I think that sounds about right. 565 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:57,279 Speaker 1: It was amazing. The carrots were fantastic, so um, and 566 00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,960 Speaker 1: I just felt like everyone needed to know about our 567 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: better anyway. Uh, if you'd like to write to us 568 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,279 Speaker 1: about this or any other podcast or history podcasts at 569 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:08,959 Speaker 1: I heart radio dot com. And we're also all over 570 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,359 Speaker 1: social media ad Missed in History, which is where you'll 571 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,560 Speaker 1: find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And you can 572 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,919 Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on the I heart Radio app 573 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,480 Speaker 1: and Apple podcasts and anywhere else you get your favorite podcasts. 574 00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:28,880 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of 575 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 576 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 577 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows