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Intro
In 1918, a deadly influenza virus originated in Haskell County, Kansas, and by the end of the year, it had caused a global pandemic. The pandemic’s spread was bolstered by World War I, which saw young men being transported around the world and housed in close quarters, providing ideal conditions for the virus to infect new victims. On the front lines of fighting this pandemic, a new generation of scientists like Paul Lewis led the search for a treatment and a vaccine. While the pandemic came suddenly, these doctors and scientists had been training most of their lives to respond to a crisis just like the influenza pandemic.
The story of modern medicine in the United States largely began in the late 1800s, right around the time when Johns Hopkins University and its medical school were founded. Though the United States saw some medical breakthroughs during the Civil War, in general, medical education in the country lagged far behind European nations, and ambitious U.S. students frequently went abroad to study medicine. At Johns Hopkins, however, and later at the Rockefeller Institute, some of America’s most talented scientists like William Henry Welch and Simon Flexner were given the resources to hire talented teams and build strong institutions from the top down. The result was that American medicine and medical education soon earned its own global reputation—just in time for the 1918 influenza epidemic.
The first outbreak of the deadly influenza virus was likely in Haskell County, Kansas, where country doctor Loring Miner was on the front lines of treating a virus that resembled influenza in some ways, but which was far deadlier than any version of influenza seen before. The deadly virus eventually receded in Kansas, and it didn’t become a global pandemic until later that year, in the fall of 1918. World War I in particular helped the virus spread, with deadly outbreaks at tightly packed American military camps and with American troops carrying it over to Europe. Other events that spread the virus included the disastrous Liberty Loan parade in Philadelphia, which was authorized by the city’s corrupt public health director, Wilmer Krusen. In some places, the devastation was so bad, particularly among young adults, that people drew comparisons to the Black Death.
In general, the American government struggled to respond to the pandemic, when it responded at all. President Woodrow Wilson didn’t acknowledge the virus in public statements. In fact, he tasked George Creel with making sure that the press only printed “100% American” stories to help whip up domestic support for World War I. This caused confusion and distrust of the government, since many Americans could see clear evidence of the virus’s destruction with their own eyes.
In general, scientists were more successful than government officials at responding to the crisis, and they managed to save lives through their recommendations on wearing masks and quarantining. Many researchers worked tirelessly, spending long hours in their laboratories. Despite some promising leads, however, including the discovery of Pfeiffer’s bacillus, which seemed like a plausible candidate to be the pathogen causing the influenza pandemic, these investigators were not successful in isolating the pathogen (a necessary step for creating vaccines and cures). Still, research on the virus continued after the war and the pandemic, and ultimately, in the 1930s, a young scientist named Richard Shope finally isolated the pathogen. Shope built on the work of the scientists who came before him, and indeed, those scientists from the 1918 pandemic went on to be recognized as some of the most important figures in early modern medicine.
Later, in 2020, author John M. Barry reflects back on his book, now that COVID-19 has caused a new pandemic in the United States. He concludes that the best lesson government officials can take away from that earlier pandemic is to avoid President Wilson’s mistakes and simply tell the truth, because having the public’s trust is an essential part of any pandemic recovery plan.
