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Chapter 32
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
In late September 1919, John Osler, one of the four founding faculty at Johns Hopkins Medical School, got influenza and died that December. Around that same time in September, many U.S. scientists were predicting that influenza would come back. By February 1920, the virus had, in fact, come back, spreading almost as rapidly as it had in 1918’s deadly second wave. It took years to fade and never truly went away.
Once again, Barry complicates the idea that the influenza pandemic ended after the deadliest wave died down. Though the aftershocks were not as noteworthy as the initial devastation, the disease remained a force in public life for well beyond its initial explosion. The fact that the disease never fully went away symbolizes how history’s effects can carry into the present day.
Themes
The virus had many consequences beyond just the death toll. Many people became orphans or lost children or siblings. Many reported lethargy that seemed to be a consequence of influenza, though it was a hard symptom to prove.
Barry shows how some of the influenza pandemic’s most enduring negative effects were not its most dramatically destructive. He considers how a disease can disrupt a person’s well-being without necessarily creating a life-or-death scenario.
Themes
The disease lived on in memory more than in literature from the time. Major writers from the period like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald said almost nothing about it. Though this may seem unusual, it actually has historical precedent: outside of a few well-known texts, little survives from the Black Death.
In this passage, the difference between actual history and the historical record comes to the forefront. Barry asks an open-ended question: what should we take away from the fact that some events, which made a huge mark on people who lived through them, nevertheless left little in the historical record?
Themes
Historians who study epidemics have noted that those in power often try to blame the poor for their own suffering, as was the case with “Typhoid Mary,” an Irish immigrant who was unjustly imprisoned for 25 years. Some officials in 1918 took similar actions. One Denver health commissioner blamed the disease on Italian immigrants. The disease itself, however, made little distinction between race and class, becoming nearly a universal threat.
The theme of scapegoating and assigning blame returns in this passage. As Barry shows, often these techniques are a way of coping with fear of the unknown. The indiscriminate nature of the disease—the way it affected people of all races and classes—provides a clear counterargument, proving why this scapegoating is never productive.
Themes
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The influenza death toll is almost impossible to calculate. Even in places that kept reliable records in normal circumstances, the sheer pace of the disease made tracking everything impossible. Many parts of the world, like rural India, didn’t keep accurate records even in normal conditions but were surely hit hard by the virus.
The lack of death toll records dovetails with the lack of pandemic mentions in early 20th century literature, once again raising questions about how history is remembered. Though Barry laments the lack of information, he isn’t necessarily criticizing places like rural India, which were overwhelmed by the virus and had little opportunity or ability to prepare.
Themes
A 1927 estimate by the American Medical Association put the death toll at 21 million. Every new figure since then has been higher. New data and better statistics bring the toll closer to 50 to 100 million, which was over five percent of the world population at the time.
The rising death tolls suggest a better understanding of the science as time goes on, as well as perhaps a greater willingness to look at the full toll of the pandemic.
Themes
Pure death tolls, however, can’t convey the real horrors of the pandemic, since one of the most significant features of the virus was how aggressively it attacked people between 16 and 40. In less developed countries, as many as 10 percent of young adults may have died.
While statistics can be helpful for historians, they can also provide a false sense of confidence. Here, Barry still looks at mass statistics but tries to give them a more human touch by putting the destruction into context.
Themes
Going into the 1920s, a sense of loss lingered among survivors, in addition to some of the mental health problems associated with surviving influenza. One positive outcome, however, was that international health authorities began to cooperate on a greater level than ever before. Cities and states organized new institutions to better prepare for future health problems. And one of the biggest legacies of the disease was what happened in laboratories.
Though the 1918 pandemic is a dark story, Barry also highlights some of the undeniably positive outcomes. The cooperation among international health authorities could be seen as the first step toward moving beyond the stubbornness of some leaders, particularly in the U.S., who ignored their better-informed advisors.
Themes
