Letters From The 1918 Pandemic

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The 1918 flu outbreak was one of the most devastating pandemics in world history, infecting one third of the world's population and killing an estimated 50 million people. While our understanding of infectious diseases and their spread has come a long way since then, 1918 was notably a time when the U.S. practiced widespread social distancing.

Transcript

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0:20.7	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:25.1	Hey everybody, Emily Quank here.
0:27.2	Today we're going back about 100 years or so
0:31.5	to the flu outbreak of 1918.
0:34.8	Another huge pandemic.
0:37.2	But to do that, we need the help of someone who really understands this time period.
0:41.9	Well, it's been amazingly busy when you are a historian of quarantine and epidemics
0:50.8	and a worldwide pandemic occurs.
0:53.3	It's sort of like your busy season.
0:55.0	It's like being in a countenery taxi.
0:57.7	And everybody wants to get a hold of you.
1:00.8	Including us.
1:02.1	Dr. Howard Markelle is the director of the center for the history of medicine at the University of Michigan.
1:08.2	1918 is a moment he studied a lot because it's the most severe flu pandemic the world has ever seen.
1:15.2	The virus infected one-third of the world's population back then.
	...

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