In 1918 flu pandemic, Omaha had second surge of cases after lifting restrictions

Omaha World-Herals ^ | 05/02/2020 | Steven Liewer

[BenLurkin]

During October 1918, Omahans had chafed under restrictions that had closed churches, schools, movie houses, theaters and public gatherings, and had banned parades and large meetings. Already 442 people had died from the lung-clogging influenza...

So there was relief and excitement when Omaha Health Commissioner E.T. Manning and the State Board of Health announced that most restrictions would be lifted Saturday, Nov. 1.

Within a week, Manning threatened to restrict gatherings again after 30 cases and 11 deaths were reported in one day. That heralded a “double hump” in flu cases, which surged after a massive Armistice Day celebration Nov. 11 and made December 1918 almost as deadly a month as October.

...

Douglas County Health Director Adi Pour, Manning’s modern-day counterpart, acknowledged Friday that public fatigue with the restrictions is a factor today, too. She allowed county restrictions to expire late last week even in the face of climbing numbers of positive tests, though some state measures remain in place.

“We need to be realistic,” she said, while urging residents to “be careful these next two weeks.”

[DannyTN]

"Omahans had chafed under restrictions that had closed churches, schools, movie houses, theaters and public gatherings, and had banned parades and large meetings."

Can't be. If that had happened, we'd be living in a totalitarian state now. /s

[TalBlack]

That’s certainly not saying that it could never happen again, “”

Oh it’s GOING to happen again but shutdowns were never before effected by prospective deaths, rather they came about by actual deaths...a lot of them. That cat is out of the bag. We haven’t heard the last of these shutdowns. They’ve got us by the balls now...

[DannyTN]

"And really, it really is ridiculous to make comparisons of what happened then with today’s given advancements in medicine and knowledge."

Today people can go to the hospital for 2 weeks and be fine until they receive their $400,000 bill. And maybe just a little lung damage.

[FlipWilson]

Yup.

Yesterday: the media says that COVID 19 is nothing like the flu.

Today: COVID-19 is just like the flu. Be afraid!!! Stay in your homes. Obey!!

It must be the weekend. The media is pushing the endless lockdown/fear themes.

Keep pushing media. The country has already reached the tipping point. I suspect that it this turns violent, the media will be the on the short list of those needing some correcting.

[The Pack Knight]

The Chinese flus of 1957 and 1968-69 seem to be entirely forgotten, as well. Both of which seem to have been as bad as or worse than the current Chinese virus. Both killed over 100,000 people in the US.

[jeffc]

Ahh, so the Omaha World Herald can be ID’d as another Dem propaganda mouthpiece...

[kabar]

LOL. The MSM still pushing to delay reopening the economy. NE has had 76 deaths and 5326 cases.

[Dutch Boy]

Never underestimate the democrats. They continually show they would rather burn the country to the ground rather than have a republican in office.

[BobL]

Other than a vaccine, this virus doesn’t stop until there’s universal mask usage. We’ll learn that one way or the other.

[Think free or die]

I would expect that cases will spike now with loosening of restrictions in parts of the country. So it goes. We delayed the process of building immunity within the population, but it still needs to happen. What we have established in the past two months is that it can be a nasty bug but it isn’t the plague. We have some treatments that are very helpful, and we have hospitals that are below capacity. It’s spring, which works to our advantage with the virus. Time to let the natural process of herd immunization proceed, with extra care given to vulnerable people within our population.

[petitfour]

Once I’ve had it and recovered, do I need to wear a mask?

[ballplayer]

Precisely why these shutdowns need to be ended,the longer the shutdown is just delays the inevitable,the virus has not gone away,you have to go back out folks.

[cableguymn]

ya. masks are an answer just like democrats are the answer.

no one knows how to wear one properly, everyone is using their dirty hands to adjust, remove, replace them. I watched my own governor (tim walz) hold one in his hand for 15 minutes, rub it on the podium, handle a remote and use the mask as a pointer during a press conference and PUT IT BACK ON!

very very very few are wearing a mask that offers any protection (the n95)

the homemade ones are ineffective at best, and germ factories at worst.

[BobL]

“Once I’ve had it and recovered, do I need to wear a mask?”

I think they’re still trying to sort through that. Would have been nice if CDC had spent the past 25 years studying viruses instead of ‘gun deaths’.

[BobL]

Actually most people outside of a clinical setting can get away with a lot of ‘sloppiness’ and lower-quality mask, as the viron concentrations are far lower.

As to whether I sound like a Democrat or not, you’re seeing both parties responding the same (Mississippi just learned that lesson today, and they have a Republican governor).

[Romans Nine]

14) One other note - in countries like Taiwan that know how to fight Coronavirus, they check temperatures of everyone, every time they enter a business (along with ratting them out if they are sick). They know they won’t catch carriers that do not yet have a fever, but I suspect those who do have a fever are spewing out far more virons than non-fever carriers, so if you stop those with a fever, you’ve cut 90 to 99% of the virons for a given environment - and then add masks (for all people) and you can pretty much assure that no one picks it up in the community...which has been the case in those countries. Social distancing also has the same effect as masks, reducing the concentration of virons being breathed by others, if a person is a carrier. If you’re outdoors and 6 feet away from a carrier - assuming that the carrier isn’t sneezing on you, you’re safe, easily.

15) So, a multi-faceted approach to this virus would be the following:

a) Identify carriers with symptoms and get them off the streets (via massive temperature checking)

b) Trace and quarantine close contacts with identified carriers

c) Require the use of masks for all people in public

d) Put in place social distancing to avoid unnecessary risks due to high concentrations of people

They’re also really into washing hands and sanitizing, but I’m not sure that’s a big factor for Coronavirus.
—————————————————————————————————-

I see you have commievirus disease.

[MD Expat in PA]

And they knew about masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc.? It’s not a valid comparison.

Not sure about what you are trying to say here. But yes they did.

During the 1918-19 “Spanish” Flu pandemic many jurisdictions made it mandatory to wear masks, some people were even arrested for not doing so. Although in truth, those gauze masks likely did little good as they allowed the virus to pass through. They knew what influenza was but had never seen one like this before. And while there had been many advances in medicine including several vaccines and improved microscopes, those microscopes were not powerful enough to see viruses and the vaccine that was developed was for what they thought caused it was against a bacteria and so was useless, but they did the best they could with what they knew at the time.

In many places, in both large cites and smaller towns, schools, restaurants, bars and theaters and even churches were ordered closed, the size of public gatherings were limited and factories were either asked or mandated to stagger shifts so as to limit the number of people working together at any one time. Train and streetcar operators were mandated to keep their windows open at all times to keep fresh air circulating. And some businesses like barber shops could stay open but only if they moved their operations to the sidewalk.

Not sure about hand washing but posters were put up reminding people not to spit in public.

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-pandemic-response-cities

[BobL]

“I see you have commievirus disease.”

Just pointing out what works. Taiwan just went a week WITHOUT any new cases, by the way.

We’ll see how our ‘experiments in other approaches’ does here.

[_longranger81]

“I’ve done a lot of family history research for the last 40 years, and have found only 1 person in my family who died during the 1918 Flu, but I have found 10 relatives who died of tuberculosis from 1894 to 1930.”

Just remember you’re comparing a one-year pandemic to a 35-year span.

[headstamp 2]

Ah, the old “Second Wave” meme.