Eberts Field in Lonoke was one of 32 U.S. Air Service training camps established during World War I. "Eberts Field, Lonoke, Arkansas - Convalescing influenza patients are isolated from sicker patients ... unit set up when hospital overflowed." (November 7, 1918, National Archives)
A Tale of Two Pandemics By J.B. Hogan Arkansas author and historian J.B. Hogan shares a portrait of the 1918 flu pandemic, the nearest medical phenomenon to the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic our world has recently experienced. Like the pandemic of 1918, COVID-19 attacks the world’s nations in waves, and as people move from country to country, the virus spreads. More than a year after its appearance, COVID-19 continues its unrelenting march around the world. As of this writing, the nations of India and Brazil are under intense attack by this mutating, devastating disease.
J
ust over 100 years ago, a vicious pandemic spread across the globe, striking the oldest and youngest among us, but disproportionately attacking younger adults (aged 20-40), many of whom were heading off to war. Improperly labeled the Spanish Flu, this virus broke out during the final year of World War I and advanced through military units and then into the civilian population with extraordinary rapidity.
HISTORY REPEATS
With today’s SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, there’s a sense that history is repeating itself. Historians and data show us that both the 1918 and 2020 pandemics attack with flu-like symptoms and involve the upper respiratory system. In both times, physical distancing was – and continues to be – used to bring transmission rates down. Masking, closures, and other enforced public health measures have proven key to discouraging both the viruses. Yet both pandemic events are responsible for tremendous loss of human life.
"Fighting Influenza in the United States - To successfully combat the influenza which has stricken a number of our Army and Navy boys, a special camp has been fitted up on the grounds of the Correy Hill Hospital in Brookline, Mass. Nurse wearing a mask as a protection against the disease, which is contagious, is filling a pitcher from the water hydrant." (September 16, 1918, Western Newspaper Union, National Archives)
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