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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Influenza, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Leadership and Crisis
Truth, Free Press, and Propaganda
Science vs. Nature
Education, Research, and Institutions
Summary
Analysis
Prestigious labs around the world began to focus on influenza, but in 1918 they were operating at a reduced scale because so much of research had been geared toward war. Because the war started in Europe, and European labs were devoting more resources to it, the U.S. had comparatively more resources to investigate influenza.
In New York City, the infamous Tammany Hall political machine had recently retaken control of the city, including public health. When influenza broke out, Tammany tried to stifle the story, but the disease soon spread so far that no amount of propaganda could disguise it.
Tammany Hall was a political organization based in New York City that played a large role in influencing local and at times even national politics. It was frequently corrupt but very successful at influencing elections for a time, most notably under the leader “Boss” Tweed in the mid-19th century. Many criticized Tammany’s harsh methods as undemocratic.
Themes
William Park and Anna Williams teamed up for their research. Park was a precise, methodical scientist, while Williams used to enjoy flying in stunt planes. Their New York City lab was one of the biggest and best in the world, with over 200 workers. When Park got a telegram asking him to look into the agent causing Spanish influenza, he replied immediately that he’d get to work.
The collaboration between Park and Williams shows how laboratories often brought together people with different personalities and work styles. At the same time, however, Park and Williams shared a high level of dedication to their work, just like many of their peers in other laboratories.
Themes
Park treated research like a war, investing all the lab’s resources into investigating the pathogen of the new influenza variant. But at first he was frustrated, as people in the lab got sick and even died. Meanwhile, outside the lab, New York City was panicking, with medical staff at hospitals in short supply, particularly nurses. Some nurses were literally kidnapped.
The details in this passage serve to highlight how desperate things became during the pandemic, not just for the general public, but even inside the labs of the people searching for a cure or vaccine.
Themes
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All this pressure forced Park to abandon his most ambitious plans. He tasked Williams with finding Pfeiffer’s bacillus (B. influenzae), and she perfected the technique of isolating it. They agreed that Pfeiffer’s bacillus seemed like a good starting point for studying the disease, even though Park’s methodology wasn’t as meticulous as he usually liked.
The 1918 pandemic forced many people to make hard decisions. While Park and Williams were not as meticulous as they might have been in other circumstances, their actions were arguably justified by the situation, demonstrating how lab research doesn’t just exist in a vacuum but is always part of the world around it.
Themes
Park’s lab struggled to make an antiserum and vaccine for Pfeiffer’s bacillus. While the bacillus did kill lab rats, their symptoms didn’t resemble influenza’s. Meanwhile, in a different lab, tests of the bacillus began on human volunteers. None of the volunteers got sick; one doctor died of influenza, but this didn’t demonstrate anything according to the scientific method.
The lack of results for a cure targeting Pfeiffer’s bacillus suggested that perhaps the bacillus was not as important to the pandemic as some initially thought. The struggles Park and Williams experienced in the lab show that even smart, dedicated researchers often face disappointment, particularly when the process must be rushed.
Themes
