REPOST -- The President Catches The Virus (1919)
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the news that President Trump has COVID, we are reposting our episode from early April about the time that President Wilson caught the Influenza virus in 1919.
We’ll be back with a new episode this Sunday.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone Jody here like all of you I woke up or was awoken by the very big news that President Trump has apparently tested positive for the coronavirus. |
| 0:10.0 | As you know one of the reasons that Nicki and I are doing this podcast is because we think there are lots of echoes in political history that can help us process the very rocky present. |
| 0:20.0 | And one of the very first episodes we did on this show. I think it was the second episode ever |
| 0:24.4 | was about President Woodrow Wilson getting influenza in 1919 during that pandemic. |
| 0:30.4 | Since we did that way back in April and a lot of you may be new listeners to the show we're going to repost that into the feed now |
| 0:36.4 | I don't want to make a habit of this this isn't a breaking news podcast, but this does kind of feel like a break glass in case of emergency type situation and maybe there is something about that Wilson and |
| 0:47.8 | 1919 story that can help you navigate today's news. So again, keep in mind this was recorded back in April, but here we go and we'll be back in your feeds with a brand new episode as always this Sunday. Thanks. |
| 1:02.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 1:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 1:09.4 | This day, April 2nd, 1919, Woodrow Wilson has the flow. |
| 1:15.7 | The influenza pandemic is sometimes called the 1918 flu pandemic. |
| 1:19.2 | It started in spring 1918, but it was the second wave as we are all learning. |
| 1:23.8 | In the fall of 1918, that was the most devastating, with the disease spreading into |
| 1:28.3 | 1919. |
| 1:30.0 | That is when President Wilson reportedly caught the flu either right before or right after he arrived |
| 1:34.6 | in Paris for another round of talks to try and bring an end to the First World War. |
| 1:39.2 | We're joined as always by Nicole Hemmer of Columbia University. |
| 1:41.9 | I'll lay out what we know and don't |
| 1:43.4 | know about this moment in a second but we should say right off the bat |
| 1:46.5 | Nicky that there's a little bit of controversy about whether he actually had the flu or |
| 1:50.3 | there were some other things going on. Yeah so one of the things that people know about Wilson and his health is that he suffers |
| 1:56.6 | a pretty serious stroke near the end of his presidency. |
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