AAAAAaaa....CHOO!

I had a little bird, 

Its name was Enza, 

I opened the window, 

And IN-FLEW-ENZA. 

True or False: You are more likely to die from the flu than you were in the trenches of WWI.

In the spring of 1918, as the nation mobilized for war, Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease doctors knew little about. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 — more than in all the wars of this century combined — before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

The 1918 pandemic had profound impacts on life in the United States. Thousands of children were orphaned. So dire was the situation that many cities including Boston, Richmond, St. Louis and others mandated quarantines and social-distancing measures. In San Francisco and Seattle, laws were passed forcing people to wear masks covering their mouths and noses while in public. The public health commissioner in Chicago told police to arrest anyone seen sneezing without covering their face in public.

Much has changed since the influenza pandemic of 1918, yet our responses to COVID-19 must still rely on many of the century-old lessons.  Read more...