The Great Influenza

The Great Influenza

Adult nonfiction
"For the influenza pandemic that erupted in 1918 was the first
great collision between nature and modern science. It was the first
great collision between a natural force and a society that included
individuals who refused either to submit to that force or simply call
upon divine intervention to save themselves from it, individuals who
instead were determined to confront this force directly, with a
developing technology and with their minds."
When the pandemic started I had no intention of reading any book
about past ones. It felt too scary. Only a few months in I
remembered the bit about those who don't learn from the mistakes of
the past being doomed to repeat them. Just as states were making
plans to reopen, Trump was trying to convince voters that the pandemic
was so last month, and mostly armed white male protesters were
fighting for their rights to go to bars and congregate in numbers I
stumbled on an article on the century old influenza pandemic. The
locales that opened up too soon after the first wave suffered the most
in the second and third. Talk about relevance! So I decided to read
John M. Barry's The Great Influenza, quoted above. I am very glad
that I did. Knowledge is power and this book provides lots of
knowledge.
There are scaring similarities between the two pandemics and the
Americas they happened in. One is that both pandemics arrived when
there were no vaccines or cures. Scientists now are scrambling just
as they did then to find a way to turn the tide which is complicated
by the ability of the viruses to continuously mutate. Another is that
it's super important for the population to undertake public health
measures to lessen the potential for contagion such as social
distancing, mask wearing, and sheltering in place whenever possible so
that health facilities won't be overwhelmed by peaks. And a third is
that in both cases the president and underlings brutally misled/are
misleading the public. Ours, focussed on getting himself reelected
and realizing that mishandling a pandemic might depress votes, is
trying to convince us that COVID-19 is a thing of the past and never
was that bad to begin with. Wilson suspected that fear of a lethal
viral pathogen might keep people from putting all their energies into
winning the war and had newspapers printing only upbeat and often
dangerously false information.
The Great Influenza carries a wealth of information. It took
Barry seven years to research and write the book. There's a twenty
page bibliography. It is, however, surprisingly readable with a great
blend of back story, science, and narrative. It gives a good sense of
what it was like to be back then, whether as a researcher trying
desperately to decode the messages encrypted in tissue samples or as a
civilian being told they have nothing to worry about even while seeing
friends and relatives die in agony.
Most of you won't read the book. So I am going to share my
biggest take on it. Let's say in a century someone is going to write
about this moment in time. We the people who aren't virologists can
do a lot to determine the direction of the narrative. Wear masks.
Socially distance. If you can do so shelter in place. Pressure
government to not take unnecessary risks with our lives. I plan to
let Governor Mills know she is not going far enough in her partial
mask mandate. Make sure money is going to protect our most vulnerable
citizens rather than make corporations richer. And in this crucial
election year make sure vote by mail is an option for all.
We're in this together.
Jules Hathaway



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