( Another Pandemic, another memory )
History repeats itself because man makes the same mistakes.
Exactly 100 years back, in a March afternoon in 1917, an American doctor in Texas noticed that people were dying from a new disease. A deadly flu was rapidly spreading. But nobody would listen to him. He was silenced by non other than the government of USA.
It was World War -1 time. Neither newspapers nor the government would acknowledge its existence. Strict law of War time in USA and Britain made it illegal to report on anything that might undermine the public’s morale.
But Spain was neutral. No such censorship existed there. Spanish newspapers could report on the outbreak of the disease freely. So the disease is remembered today as the Spanish flu.
The biggest carnage in our history.
In total, 25 to 100 million people died of Spanish flu between 1917 and 1919, including 675,000 Americans. This is the greatest carnage in the history of mankind from any cause.
So the sad truth is that News censorship during war time killed more Americans than the War itself.
Remembering Dr Li Wenliang of China who reported the new Corona virus of Hubei.
Unfortunately, he didn’t survive. We didn’t know what happened to the doctor of Texas who reported about the Spanish Flu first.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 