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Chapter 5
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 1918 in Haskell County, Kansas, everything was flat, and farmers lived close with their livestock. It was a place of extremes: hot summers, cold winters, and driving rains. It was here, according to epidemiological evidence, that a new influenza virus originated.
Dr. Loring Miner, who provided the evidence that the virus originated in Haskell, was a strange man. He was big and gruff, but in spite of his rough manners, he was a capable country doctor, with a practice that spanned hundreds of miles. One day, he started seeing several patients with influenza-like symptoms that were unusually intense—even deadly.
Though Loring Miner didn’t have the same credentials as some of the Hopkins-affiliated doctors, he had a similar competence, which was based on his willingness to get hands-on with treatment. Barry criticizes how medical schools used to only attract the wealthiest students, and one of the consequences of this is that “country doctors” like Loring Miner were underrepresented at elite schools, despite their undeniable skill.
Themes
Miner devoted all his energy to studying and combating the strange new disease. Though at first the disease overwhelmed him with new patients, it mysteriously disappeared a couple months later. Miner was still concerned, since there was no good way to track influenza (since public health agencies didn’t consider it notable enough to be “reportable”), but he was mostly alone, particularly since the war was dominating the news.
Despite Miner’s devotion and skill, he was unable to do much about the influenza pandemic because he didn’t have support from public health agencies or the press. His situation directly highlights a case where stronger institutional support, at an earlier stage, could have reduced the severity of a future crisis.
Themes
Camp Funston was a military camp near the Kansas river. It was thrown together out of necessity in 1917, to train new young soldiers for World War I. Some of the young men at the camp were originally from Haskell County. On March 4, a private at the camp was reported ill with influenza. Within three weeks, 1,100 soldiers would be sick, with roughly 20 percent hospitalized and 38 dead (a low number compared to the virus in other places).
Military camps were one of the major sources of devastation during the 1918 influenza pandemic, and in some ways, the same flaws that caused young soldiers to die in battle were also what caused them to die of disease. In particular, bureaucracy and the arrogance of leaders who ignored expert advisors were major factors that contributed to the spread of disease in army camps; similar factors could also be said to have contributed to soldier deaths in battle.
Themes
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