Influenza 1918

Fall – Winter 1918

August 27, 1918 - Sailors aboard the Receiving Ship at Commonwealth Pier in Boston start reporting to the sick bay with cold symptoms.

August 30, 1918 - At least 60 sailors on the Receiving Ship are now sick.

September 1918 - Dr. Victor Vaughn, acting Surgeon General of the Army, receives an urgent order to go to Camp Devens, near Boston. His reaction, when he arrives, is:

• I saw hundreds of young stalwart men in uniform coming into the wards of the hospital. Every bed was full, yet others crowded in. The faces wore a bluish cast; a cough brought up the blood-stained sputum. In the morning, the dead bodies are stacked about the morgue like cord wood.

That day 63 men die, at Camp Devans, of the new influenza 1918 virus.

In 1918 hospital beds quickly filled, and makeshift hospitals became common.

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September 28, 1918 - 200,000 people gather in Philadelphia for a Liberty Loan Drive.

• Within 72 hours of the parade, every bed in Philadelphia's 31 hospitals was filled. Within 10 days the epidemic exploded from a few hundred civilian cases to hundreds of thousands and from a daily rate of one or two deaths to hundreds. The horror is most vivid in the dilemma surrounding the disposal of bodies. The city morgue had hundreds of bodies stacked up, which produced an unbearable stench, and undertakers rapidly ran out of coffins. Hundreds of bodies lay in homes exactly where they had been at the time of death; burial quickly became impossible, since there were not enough people to dig graves.

  --New England Journal of Medicine

An epidemic is declared in Philadelphia, and churches, schools and theaters (and other amusements) are ordered closed.

President Wilson remains silent on the subject of the new influenza.

October 3, 1918 - The influenza 1918 reaches Seattle, Washington. 700 cases are reported (and 1 death) at the University of Washington Naval Training Station. The stock market in New York, while still open, is now only open half days.

October 6, 1918 - Philadelphia records 289 deaths in a single day.

October 7, 1918 - New Mexico records its first case of Spanish flu.

Mid October 1918 - 851 New Yorkers die in a single day. The death rate in Philadelphia is 700 times the average for a year--in just one week.

Meanwhile, the influenza 1918 bodies piled up. In many cities, they lay uncollected in homes for days. In some places, including Philadelphia, they were buried in mass graves dug by steam shovels.

--John Barry, author of The Great Influenza

October 29, 1918 - Six ply gauze masks become mandatory in Seattle. The next day they are mandatory in the entire state of Washington. By the end of October, the US has seen the deadliest month in history, not just for influenza 1918—with 195,000 dying because of the pandemic flu.Photo – man in mask

People are afraid to leave their homes.

• Absenteeism reached extraordinary levels. Shipyard workers were told that their duties were as important as a soldier's; they were paid only if they worked; and, unlike elsewhere, physicians were available to them on site. Yet absentee rates in the shipyards — one of the few industries for which there are good data — still ranged from 45% to 58% (ref. 3). Absenteeism crippled the railroad system, which transported nearly all freight, bringing it to the point of collapse. It shut down telephone exchanges, closing off communication, and further isolating and alienating people. Grocers refused to open. Coal sellers closed. In cities and rural communities, the Red Cross reported that people "were starving to death not for lack of food but because the well were too panic stricken to bring food to the sick

  --John Barry, author of The Great Influenza

November 3, 1918 - The News of the World prints some flu prevention suggestions: "Wash inside of nose with soap and water each night and morning. Force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply. Do not wear a muffler. Take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work. Eat plenty of porridge."

For weeks later, there is a surge in pandemic flu cases.

November 21, 1918 - Sirens sound in San Francisco to announce that it is safe for everyone to remove their face masks.

December 1918 - One month later, 5000 new cases are reported in San Francisco.

And so the second wave of the influenza 1918 pandemic was still present through the winter. The second wave would be recognized as the most deadly period in the history of the world.

But, the 1918 influenza pandemic was not over yet. The influenza 1918 flu would have one more wave, in the spring of 1919.

1918 Flu Epidemic - 1st Wave

1918 Influenza Pandemic - 3rd Wave

Pandemics in History

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