The past weeks have felt like months as we confront a fresh experience of social distancing and self-isolation. If we look back on our history of pandemics, we can reflect on the mistakes that previous American citizens and governments made, as well as the beneficial precautionary measures they took.
Smallpox, or previously known as the variola virus, first was brought to North America in the seventeenth century from Europe. It was spread through the mouth via coughing or sneezing. Smallpox would kill 30% of people who contracted it and left many critically scarred or even blind. The last smallpox outbreak in the U.S was in 1949 before being officially eliminated from the world in 1952. The eradication is credited to the mass vaccination of populations to prevent carriers from spreading the disease.
The first epidemic of polio in the U.S was in 1894 in Vermont. It was named polio from the Greek root poli meaning “grey” or pale, in reference to the sallow appearance of the afflicted. It contaminated the water supply through feces, so children were orderedto avoid puddles and other bodies of water, as children were the main victims of polio. 1916 saw the beginning of the largest surges of polio cases, including U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who caught it in 1921. In regards to treatment, the Iron Lung assisted the breathing of patients, with many sufferers depending on it for years to come. In 1955, a polio vaccine was invented, preventing the further spread of it.
A boy in an iron lung during the polio epidemic in 1937.
Scarlet fever affected children ages five to fifteen and the severity/mortality rate of it fluctuated during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before being prevented with antibiotics. It was called scarlet fever in note of the bright red rash patients had. It was caught by means of airborne droplets or even touching infected skin.
Typhoid fever usually affected poor and lower class citizens but in the early 1900s, rich families in Long Island, New York unexpectedly acquired the disease. It was named from the Greek word typhos meaning “daze caused by fever” or a smoky haze. It was spread through infected water or food. The carrier was revealed to be a hired cook for the families named Mary Mallon, referred to as “Typhoid Mary”. She was blamed for fifty-one cases and three deaths and helped confirm the previously unproven theory of carriers in regards to the spread of disease.
Seattle police officers in enforcing the law that anyone outside must wear a mask or else they would be fined.
During World War I, American troops at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas, obtained an influenza that would come to be known as the Spanish Flu, despite it most likely spreading from American soldiers to Europe. The flu spread through respiratory droplets from the affected’s mouth,. With no vaccine, doctors prescribed fatal amounts of aspirin. In an attempt to remain patriotic, the United States failed to avert the flu’s escalation by minimizing publicity about the danger and not implementing preventive measures. In the summer of 1919, the Spanish Flu pandemic ended. Today there are influenza vaccinations, but it remains deadly.
Before the invention of a measles vaccine in 1963, 3-4 million people were affected by it yearly. It was titled measles from the Middle Dutch word masel meaning “little blemish”. It spread person-to-person until 2000 when measles was declared eradicated in the U.S , credited to widespread vaccination.
If we keep physically distancing and keeping our herd immunity, we can “flatten the curve” and minimize cases. We don’t want to look back and see that we did too little, too late.