Ghosts of 1918 Pandemic Still Haunt Arizona
From the Arizona Food Industry Journal
By Mark Nothaft
Arizonans didn't have hand sanitizer in 1918. Or Pedialyte. Heck, or air conditioning, the last time the state witnessed a pandemic.
But locals did slather surfaces with early versions of Lysol and Clorox, which was better than caustic benzine, a carbolic acid-based solvent that had been used up until then to slow the spread of the germs.
Aspirin offered some reliefs from fever and aches, but too much poisoned patients. And Willis Carrier's air compressor that was used to remove humidity around printing presses wouldn't be introduced until after 50 million people died worldwide during the two years of the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918-1920.
Combing through old Arizona newspaper clippings reveals some fascinating similarities and differences between the Spanish Flu 100 years ago and COVID-19 today.
For starters, face masks were required during the 1918 outbreak; today they are recommended statewide, though some municipalities require them. Back then it was illegal to not wear one in public, and public pressure occurred face-to-face rather than online.
The Arizona Republican, as the large daily newspaper in Phoenix was known back then, finally committed to calling the widespread illnesses an outbreak after months of vacillating back and forth, writing: “The rise in mortality from pneumonia, this very similar type of disease, in the spring of 1918, is so sudden, so marked, and so general throughout the United States as to point very clearly to a definite relation. Everything indicates that the increased mortality from pneumonia in March and April of 1918 was the consequence of a beginning and largely unnoticed epidemic of influenza, the beginning in this country of the pandemic which developed in the autumn of the year...”
The correlation between Arizona and the source of the outbreak, thought to be U.S. Army Camp Funston on the Fort Riley Reservation in Kansas, also was documented in local newspapers. The first few groups of men drafted from Arizona during World War I boarded trains at Prescott and traveled back and forth to Camp Funston throughout 2017 and early 2018 before deploying to France in the Spring of 2018.
The Coconino Sun reported in January 1918: “The grippe (the common term for influenza at the time) seems to be the prevailing ailment with a majority of Flagstaff's populace these days, but no serious results from the contagion have so far been reported.”
Next month, the Holbrook News wrote: “An epidemic of grippe or colds prevails in Holbrook at the present time. Many persons are confined to their homes by the malady and many others follow their customary pursuits, although some of these should be in bed. If there is any one disease more than another that causes a person to hate himself and all mankind, it is this same grippe or influenza thing. Yes, we have it.”
Verde Copper News began publishing lists of victims and updates about the same time and continued for the next two years:
• Victims of Grippe: Charles C. Stemmer and Mrs. Stemmer, and J. Steinberg are suffering from an attack of grippe.
• Seriously Ill: Paul Nance, an employee at Miller's store, is on the sick list, threatened with pneumonia, so it is reported.
• Attack of Influenza: Miss Helen Finlayson, daughter of Dan Finlayson, superintendent of the Green Monster mine, has been suffering for the past 3 days with a severe attack of influenza.
• Recovering from Pneumonia: Charles W. Sult, Jr., son of Dr. C. W. Sult, is reported to be very much improved since his recent attack of pneumonia.
• Recovers from Grippe: Mrs. E. Green, who has been confined to her home for several days suffering with a severe attack of grippe, has sufficiently recovered to be out again looking after her business.
U.S. Health Service officially acknowledge the Spanish Flu in mid-1919, as published in the Coconino Sun: “A close relation between the influenza epidemic and the constantly increasing pneumonia mortality rate prior to the fall of 1918 is recognized. It is now believed that the disease was pretty widely disseminated throughout the country before it was recognized in its epidemic state. This failure to recognize the early cases appears to have largely been due to the fact that every interest was then centered on the war.”
A third wave tracked across the state during the early part of 1919, but officials smartly took precautions and closed schools, required masks in public and encouraged frequent hand-washing and social distancing. The Prescott Courier in March 1919 pronounced that “Cornville has Banished the Influenza.”
By the time the dust settled and bodies buried, the data was staggering. The Kingman Daily Miner reported in Spring 1919 that “2,005 deaths were related to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic” across Arizona, a large percentage considering a mere 300,000 souls lived in the state at the time.
Hopefully today's Coronavirus crisis will not take two years to run its course, as we keep an eye on the past to gain a “grippe” on the situation.
Mark Nothaft is a longtime local journalist, who along with Mi-Ai Parrish co-founded MAP Strategies Group of Phoenix, www.MAPstrategiesgroup.com.