The Perils of Seeking Answers for COVID-19 in the 1918 Influenza Epidemic
By William P. Tatum III, Ph.D., Dutchess County Historian
Since county government announced the first documented case of COVID-19 on March 12th, I have encountered a rising number of people who ask about the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. Specifically, they have encouraged me to look into the county archives and other collections for “answers from the past” for today’s question.
Here’s my response: Do not look to reactions to the 1918 Pandemic to provide answers for the 2020 Pandemic.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I am reliant on the online archives of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (the Poughkeepsie Journal’s name in 1918) for insights into how local authorities addressed the public health emergency. My commentary is confined to the City of Poughkeepsie and limited in its perspective even within the city. Generally, historians do not rely on a single source of data for any remarks about the past…but generally we don’t look directly to the past for answers to today’s problems, particularly problems that involve technology.
Nevertheless, I found some helpful points in this newspaper data that describe why looking to 1918 for answers is a bad idea.
First, the medical professionals of 1918 disagreed on exactly what sort of disease they were facing. Some authorities claimed (correctly, as it turned out) that the influenza of 1918 was a novel (new) strain of a familiar disease. Others loudly clamored that this flu was no different from the “Grippe of 1889-90” that had afflicted Dutchess County. As a result, there was not a unity of medical opinion and practice moving into this crisis. Even worse, this divide in opinion connected with racist and xenophobic propaganda. The popular name of the disease, the “Spanish Influenza,” insinuated that Spain was responsible for it. In fact, Spain was simply the only country in Europe with a free press providing blunt coverage of the disease. An article in the September 19, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported a theory that German U-Boat crews had brought influenza to America, landing at points along the coast to spread it. The author of this theory, Lieutenant Colonel Philip S. Doane, also proclaimed that the influenza was “nothing more or less than old fashioned grippe” (pg 1).
An article in the October 10, 1918, edition expanded on Doane’s claim, connecting the current influenza with “the old Grip, or La Grippe” that had reached epidemic proportions in 1889-90. The only difference, the article claimed, was that the earlier disease had originated in Russia and arrived via France. Such coverage squarely placed the “blame” for infection on Spanish, Russian, and French sources (pg 9).
October 10, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 2
Second, the city of Poughkeepsie health authorities gave contradictory and ultimately counter-productive advice. City Health Officer Helen K. Palliser, M.D., observed in numerous newspaper articles that transmission occurred when an infected individual sneezed or coughed. Unfortunately, contemporary health officials focused on this behavior rather than on the underlying mechanism of transmission: the particles ejected during the coughing and sneezing. As a result, while they got one part somewhat correct, that did not lead to effective health measures. Instead of advising self-quarantine (today’s “social distancing”), city officials advised residents to seek fresh air and to embrace exercise, either outdoors or in gymnasiums. The YMCA even ran a series of ads about the many benefits of group exercise indoors.
October 8, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 2
Third, while the city did embrace some measures that echo the directives of modern government, the response overall was half-hearted and generally ineffective. The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News published a report of the first confirmed cases of influenza (which doctors judged had infected over 100 people) on September 23rd. On the same day, the city suffered its first documented influenza-related deaths: Ralph Welton and his daughter Mary. The same report included a quote from Frank C. Furlong, MD, who stated that ““unless more precaution is taken the city is likely to have an epidemic” (pg 5).
September 23, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 5
The city nevertheless went forward with the September 28, 1918, Victory Bond Drive parade, which attracted an attendance of thousands. In ignoring the warnings of physicians including Furlong, the paper reported that the board of health “believes it will be better for the public to get out into the fresh air today than to call off the parade” (Sept 28, 1918, edition, pg 6).
September 28, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 6
In the October 4, 1918, edition, Vassar Brothers Hospital became the first medical establishment to close its doors to healthy visitors seeking access to the influenza patients. The same issue saw several other important developments: the Hyde Park Home Defense Society cancelled a fundraising dance, the Red Cross called for individuals to make masks, and City Health Officer Palliser stated that closing movie theatres and schools was “of little use unless every manufacturing and commercial establishment was closed as well” (pg 7).
October 4, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 7. Note that the masks were for military camps, not local hospitals.
The October 7, 1918, edition announced the closure of schools and movie theatres following a contentious meeting of the city board of health the preceding day. Over 50 people attended the meeting, including many of the doctors in the city. After two hours of fierce debate, the proposed closure passed in a vote of 6:3. Dr. Furlong and Health officer Palliser both voted against the closure. The board further resolved that “public gathers where large numbers of people congregate are a menace to public health and should not be held.” Nevertheless, the board chose to delay any closure of local churches for later discussion. By October 12th, city officials were asking churches not to hold services. Despite these closures, residents continued to mingle. As Dutchess County Historical Society Executive Director Bill Jeffway observed to me, the DCHS of 1918 was at this time continuing with planning its annual “pilgrimage” field trip, which departed for Red Hook in October.
October 7, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 1
The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News offered a running record of the results of medical disagreements, contradictory advise, and half-measures. While contemporary reports did not create graphs or lists of figures charting the spread of disease and mortality, each edition of the paper from this period listed numerous people who were ill or had passed on. The paper also documented the creation of three emergency hospitals, which testified to the increase in cases well beyond what St. Francis and Vassar Brothers could handle. City officials announced the first two emergency hospitals on October 7, 1918: one at the city infirmary, the other at St. Margaret’s Chapel in the Congregational Church. In the October 10th edition, city officials placed an ad for volunteers nurses to reinforce these facilities. By October 12th, Health Officer Palliser reported that both emergency hospitals were filled to capacity and a third could only open if additional volunteer nurses could be found. They were and the third hospital opened at the Masonic Hall on Cannon Street opened by October 14th. On the same day, Mayor Butts and Palliser reported that attempted connections at the Poughkeepsie telephone switchboard were 50% over capacity and urged residents to use the phone only in medical emergencies.
October 14, 1918, edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, pg 4
By October 21, 1918, the infection rate was on the decline. The emergency hospitals began to close in early November, though sporadic outbreaks of influenza continued through the end of the year. The cost in time, resources, and lives was substantial and included Nina McCullough Mattern, a pioneering Dutchess County suffragist and director of the Masonic Hall emergency hospital. She succumbed to a secondary infection of pneumonia (a major cause of death with the 1918 influenza) on October 31st. You can read more about her story at the Dutchess County Historical Society’s webpage here.
Just as Dutchess County overcame the health and economic challenges of 1918, we will inevitably move beyond what faces us now. With improved medical understanding and technology, a unified medical establishment, and local governments that are implementing effective public health measures, our situation in 2020 is much better than what our forebearers faced 102 years ago.
