COVID-19 is Nothing Compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2020

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

COVID19, aka - the coronavirus, has triggered mass quarantines and spooked markets across the globe. To date, over 3,000 have died and over 100,000 infected. But however dangerous this virus ends up being, it doesn't belong in the same galaxy as Spanish Flu, which killed up to 100 million in 1918, which was 5 percent of the earth's population.

Today's guest is Dr. Jeremy Brown, director of emergency care at the National Institute of Health and author of Influenza: The 100-Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History. He notes that great strides have been made in medicine the last century, and whatever happens next, it won’t be a second 1918.

We discuss the quarantine methods used in the ancient and medieval worlds during epidemics and pandemics; how the Spanish Flu pandemic began; what it was it like for an average person in 1918 and whether there was an omnipresent fear of death, or were people mostly resigned to their fate; how the Spanish flu pandemic ended; and finally, lessons from 1918 we should heed today.

Here's the bottom line: with coronavirus, you will definitely have it much, much better than your great grandpappy did with Spanish flu.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:14.2	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.8	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.1	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride.
0:44.5	History is in just a bunch of names and dates and facts.
0:47.7	It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explain how and why we got here.
0:53.1	Welcome to the History and Plug podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,
0:58.0	and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.
1:02.1	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:12.1	Hello, everyone.
1:12.9	Well, this is one of the most topical episodes we've ever done on this show, because we're doing something that is ripped from the headlines.
1:19.5	We'll be talking about not exactly coronavirus, but the type of infection that the coronavirus is.
1:26.2	What are examples in history that look similar to coronavirus and what was something that was we all hope much worse,
1:32.4	and all indications suggested it will.
1:35.1	I'm very excited for this episode, because I'm talking with perhaps one of the most qualified people who could be talking about this issue,
1:41.2	and that is Dr. Jeremy Brown.
1:43.1	Dr. Brown is an emergency physician, and he is the author of the book Influenza, the 100-year hunt to cure the deadliest disease in history.
1:52.2	He's the director of the Office of Emergency Care Research at the National Institute of Health,
1:57.3	but he's on the show in a personal capacity, and I want to stress that, because if he makes predictions,
2:03.3	then it's not a pronouncement from the NIH, so I want to get that out there right now.
	...

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