This past weekend, The Plain Dealer published an account of how Cleveland survived the Spanish Flu of 1918.
The article began by how incorrect the word "unprecedented" is in describing how Cleveland is reacting to the coronavirus.
It noted that "the City got through it using the very same social distancing precautions public health officials are ordering today. These measures were unpopular at the time, but they worked."
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"'They were doing then the very same thing we're doing now,' said John Grabowski, Case Western Reserve University associate professor of history and editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 'It's somewhat an eerily similar situation.'"
In 1918, the City "closed churches, theaters, movie houses, schools and dance halls to slow the spread of the Flu. Football games were canceled. (The State) recommended that all communities ban gatherings."
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Unfortunately, “These safeguards certainly did not stop the spread of the flu in Cleveland in 1918: 23,600 people in the City fell ill between September and December of 1918, and 3,600 people died. In total, more than 4,400 people Clevelanders died of the flu.”
But the loss of life in Cleveland paled in comparison with Philadelphia – which saw 13,000 Philadelphians die of the flu in the last four (4) months of 1918.
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If you want to read on about the difference between the diseases of 1918 and 2020, click here. The article also has a VERY good in-depth account of how the Spanish Flu began to grip the City, how forcefully it hit us, and its aftermath.
Be well.
Z
