The Third Wave

“I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.”

It was the fall of 1918.

Four and one half year of the Great World War was still raging. Now even the American soldiers have also joined the great firing olympics – World War 1. Soldiers in millions were living deep inside trenches in some of the most brutal conditions of life. There would be an occasional outbreak of common cold among the forces. That seemed to be normal.

But this common cold among the forces in that year 1918 was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world’s population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people aged 20 to 40. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War. It killed 10 times more Americans than the war could kill.

One anecdote of 1918 shares that four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg)

http://www.the-experience.com/issue2/flu.htm

Hoagg, Jesse “The Influenza Virus Unveiled,” The Experience , 1997

The second wave:

The war ended. The soldiers returned home. Along with them the influenza pandemic circled the globe. The second wave of the epidemic first arrived in Boston in September of 1918 through the port busy with war shipments of machinery and supplies.

On November 11 of 1918, the victorious Americans gathered in millions to celebrate the end of the war with the Armistice Day with parades and large parties. This initiated the second wave that affected one-quarter of the US and one-fifth of the world with the influenza. It was impossible for any single human on this earth to escape from the illness. Even President Woodrow Wilson suffered from the flu in early 1919 while negotiating the crucial treaty of Versailles to end the World War.

The first strain of the 1918 flu wasn’t particularly deadly. Then it came back in the fall with a vengeance. Link from history.com is given below.

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence

The third wave:

• Was there a third wave ?

Spanish flu returned in the early months of 1919, although this time, it was not as lethal as during the second wave. Scientists suspect that the population had by then developed sufficient immunity for the incidence of the virus to have less effect. Although it continued to surge in the winter of every successive year, not much was known about the virus until 1933. Since then it has become the seasonal flu.

It has now been established that children between the age of one and three, and people aged between 21 and 30 were most affected most. The place of origin of the virus has never been confirmed, although scientists have suggested three cities: Étaples, in France; Haskell, in the USA, and Xhanxi, in China.

Conclusion:

The great Spanish Flu teaches us three lessons.

• The second wave was more deadly than the first wave. Death toll was higher. But certainly the devastation was more man-made than by the virus.

• The first wave brewed in the trenches of military camps in the war zone and carried home by the home coming of the war worn soldiers. But the second wave devastated the Americans because of massive victory celebrations on the Armistice day. The experience of the first wave has given the virus an initial advantage over our immune system.

• There was a third wave. But by this time herd immunity had kicked in. People have learnt from their past mistakes. The third wave was nothing in comparison to the second wave.

There were also subsequent waves till 1933. They are not recorded as boldly as the first two. It implies that the subsequent waves are not as lethal as the initial two till the virus was delegated into the common basket of seasonal flu and went into oblivion.

Moral of the story:

History repeats itself because man makes the same mistake.

Let us learn from our past mistakes. Together we can abort a third wave.