The 1918 influenza pandemic swept across the globe, sickening one-third of the world’s population, or about half a billion people, by the end of its terrifying run.
At least 50 million people — including 675,000 in the United States — were killed by this strain of the H1N1 virus.
Despite being referred to as “Spanish flu,” there is no evidence the pandemic began in Spain. Researchers don’t know its true origin but only that it spread throughout the world from 1918 to 1919.
Diagnosing and caring for the sick was challenging. At the time, no test or vaccine existed, and neither did breathing machines. Doctors could do little but provide supportive care.
The virus claimed the lives of healthy people. There were high mortality rates among those 20 to 40 years old. As John M. Barry, author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,” told the Tribune in 2004, healthy young adults died more often than the very young or the very old because the viral invader would provoke a hyperactive response from their robust immune systems. The resulting immune “storm” would fill the lungs with debris and end up killing the patient.
Though occuring more than 100 years apart, there are many similarities between the 1918 flu pandemic and the current coronavirus crisis.
March 1918
The pandemic hit in three different waves during 1918. The first outbreak of flu-like illnesses was detected in the U.S. in March 1918, with more than 100 cases reported at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas. America’s entry into World War I the previous year led to the crowding of military bases, making them the perfect breeding ground.
One well-documented effect of the virus was rapid and severe lung damage. The viral disease inflamed the lungs of victims, filling them with liquid to the point of severe pneumonia, influenza’s deadly sidekick, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chicago-area casualties as a result of pneumonia that month at Camp Funston included Cpl. Phillip J. Jacky and Pvt. George F. Ludlow, both in their 20s.
Summer 1918
Trenches along the Western Front during World War I were also jammed with soldiers and provided ripe conditions for the virus to travel.
Germany’s leader Kaiser Wilhelm II was struck with so-called “Spanish grippe” and so were several of his family members.
Countries, however, declined to provide details about the number of cases within their borders, as this clip about Germany shows.
2020: The Chinese government has been accused of concealing data that shows the extent of the coronavirus epidemic, recently increasing its death toll in Wuhan — the city where the outbreak first emerged — by 50 percent.
“We would better cultivate all the health we can, for we’re going to need it when what the Germans call the Spanish influenza, which has been sweeping Europe, gets across the sea and begins its process through this continent. Come it surely will.”
— “Comment by Madame X” column in the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 11, 1918
Aug. 17, 1918
Military and non-military ships struggled to contain influenza outbreaks while at sea.
2020: Cruise ships have been a focal point of the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning, widely blamed for a series of major outbreaks that spread the disease across the world.
Sept. 8, 1918
The arrival of the flu pandemic in the Chicago area was first reported among sailors at Naval Station Great Lakes.
Up to 40 percent of U.S. Army and Navy personnel became infected with the flu and pneumonia from September through November 1918, according to a University of Michigan study.
Sept. 13, 1918
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George suffered from influenza and was forced to cancel engagements, but he would recover.
2020: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the first world leader confirmed to have coronavirus.
Sept. 15, 1918
Officers issued quarantine orders for the station’s 50,000 servicemen and also required daily nose and throat sprays to be administered.
Capt. W.A. Moffett, commandant of the station, canceled work so the men could get outside. He “believes plenty of fresh air will prevent the disease,” according to a Chicago Tribune story.
Sept. 17-19, 1918
With estimates of 1,000 sick at Great Lakes and rumors of many more dead, a quarantine was put into effect for the entire station.
Surprisingly, though, civilians were still allowed to visit.
Dr. John Dill Roberton, health commissioner for the city of Chicago, said it seemed hardly probable that a sickness that has swept around the world would pass Chicago by entirely.
“If you get it, stay at home, rest in bed, keep warm, drink hot drinks and stay quiet until the symptoms are past. Then continue to be careful, for the greatest danger is from pneumonia or some kindred disease after the influenza is gone.”
— Dr. John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Sept. 18, 1918
Sept. 19, 1918
Then assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became ill with pneumonia while aboard a ship en route to New York City.
2020: Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was fired after sending an email pleading for assistance from his superiors in stemming the coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship. Crozier tested positive for the virus and thousands of crew members have been quarantined in Guam. One sailor died.
Chicago officials discussed renewing an anti-spitting campaign in light of the influenza epidemic.
The idea was offered up by First Deputy Superintendent Morgan Collins — who would later become superintendent of the department — who suggested stenciled signs saying “Don’t Spit” on the city’s sidewalks.
Sept. 21, 1918
Great Lakes’ commanding officer reassured worried relatives that “we have only 800 cases” among the base’s sailors, nicknamed jackies for the blue jackets they wore. A few days later, the Tribune editorially discounted “the so-called influenza epidemic.”
“It is largely because health conditions at Great Lakes have been so good in the past that the present situation attracts attention. It is because of the contrast.”
— Capt. W.A. Moffett, Great Lakes commander
Sept. 23, 1918
Fort Sheridan, the Army’s counterpart to Great Lakes, logged 300 cases — 120 new cases that day alone — which caused the post of more than 2,000 men to be placed under quarantine. Officials of nearby suburbs were also scrambling to take action, the Tribune reported.
Sept. 26, 1918
Influenza cases were reported in the suburbs north of Chicago. Deaths included this young Evanston woman, Gladys May Beyers.
Sept. 30, 1918
There were 260 influenza cases in Chicago, then home to about 2.7 million people, or roughly the same number of people today.
Oct. 1, 1918
Ads described a variety of “remedies” to help prevent or cure the flu appear in the Chicago Tribune.
2020: Watchdog groups and authorities have reported a surge of complaints about scams targeting people who fear catching the virus or need money due to lost income.
Shortages of doctors, nurses and hospital beds were reported in Chicago. A Chicago Tribune story estimates “the number of physicians and trained nurses in the city has been reduced approximately 40 per cent by the war and in addition the infection resulting from handling the disease has already begun to cut a wide swath in the number of those available for the battle.”
Oct. 2, 1918
Almost overnight, Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park became a care facility for 54 influenza patients.
Oct. 3, 1918
In a section of advertisements within the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson shared a handbill of questions and answers regarding the influenza pandemic given to him by U.S. Surgeon General Rupert Blue.
“Cover up each cough and sneeze, If you don’t you’ll spread disease.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner
The American Red Cross announced it would send nurses and emergency supplies where needed.
Oct. 5, 1918
Flu cases numbered between 40,000 and 60,000 in Chicago, with officials hesitating to “make the big figures known generally,” according to a Chicago Tribune story. The public was said to have heeded the warnings issued, but thousands of people were still said to be carelessly exposing themselves to the virus.
Oct. 9, 1918
Since many theaters around the U.S. were closed due to the virus, the National Association of Motion Picture Industries voted to discontinue the release of movies until after the epidemic had abated.
2020: Filmgoing was merely one among countless sectors of the American entertainment industry reeling from the coronavirus presence.
Mid-October 1918
The Illinois Influenza Advisory Commission forbade dancing and restricted funeral attendance to immediate family and a few, select friends on Oct. 10, 1918.
All nonessential public gatherings were stopped. Theaters, movie houses and night schools were closed on Oct. 14, 1918. Lodge meetings and gatherings were also not permitted. Both indoor and outdoor athletic contests were canceled.
Street and elevated cars were ordered to keep their doors open and windows, too, as weather permitted. Commuters’ trips to and from the city were staggered to prevent overcrowding of cars. Later, orders were issued to require all cars be disinfected once every 24 hours.
Churches in the city could stay open, but many were used to aid the sick. Schools also kept their doors open, perhaps to make it easier for keeping tabs on the health of students. Businesses that were well-ventilated and uncrowded could remain open — including saloons, pool rooms and bowling alleys.
2020: Funeral homes have made adjustments to services during the coronavirus pandemic. Some mourners attend services electronically. Others arrive to mourn in shifts of 10 or fewer people at a time.
“Keeping the schools open is having the effect we believed it would have. With all suspected cases excluded from the classroom, the children are better off than they would be if we closed the schools and they were free to roam wherever they chose.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Oct. 3, 1918
Oct. 18, 1918
Local health officials wanted to inject dying influenza victims with a “serum” consisting of blood extracted from those who had recovered from the virus, primarily sailors at Great Lakes and soldiers at Camp Grant. The treatment was deemed successful at a naval hospital outside Boston.
2020: The University of Chicago’s medical system is studying whether plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients can help people who are severely ill with the coronavirus. The trial involves infusing the plasma into people who are fighting for their lives at UChicago Medicine. The hope is that antibodies in the plasma will neutralize the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Oct. 22, 1918
Munitions plants — crippled by the influenza pandemic — sought thousands of unskilled workers to help produce supplies for the war effort. With theaters and cabarets closed, actresses and dancers offered their talents and time to these essential businesses.
“Well, we go to work at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and quit at 11 at night — eight hours. It’s great sport. We inspect the shells. … We all wear overalls like these.”
— Dolly Thornton, singer turned factory worker
Oct. 25, 1918
Advertisements touted the importance of keeping home and hands clean in order to help fight the virus. Lysol and Lifebuoy, a Unilever product, still exist today.
2020: After common household cleaning products — including Lysol and Clorox wipes — flew off store shelves, experts offered tips on what disinfectants could be used instead.
Oct. 26, 1918
Ella Flagg Young was named superintendent of Chicago Public Schools — the first woman to lead a major city’s school system in the U.S. — at the age of 64 in 1909. The news of her hiring appeared on the front page of The New York Times. A progressive leader, Young initiated the teaching of “sex hygiene” and “insisted upon the complete divorce of politics from the public schools,” according to her obituary. She stepped down from the position in 1915.
Young died in Washington, D.C., after traveling to speak on behalf of liberty loans, which were bonds sold to help cover expenses of the nation’s involvement in World War I. A CPS elementary school in the Austin neighborhood is named in her honor.
“All the city will feel her loss keenly. I remember in the early days when I first came to Chicago that Mrs. Young’s schools on the South Side were the most advanced in the city in vocational work.”
— Jane Addams, Hull House co-founder and first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (1931)
Oct. 27, 1918
A downward curve was tracked in the number of flu and pneumonia cases in Chicago.
“But the time has not come to lift quarantine in Chicago. The public must continue to protect itself and wait patiently until we are down to normal conditions again or near that point.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Oct. 26, 1918
The number of deaths recorded in Chicago due to flu and pneumonia had been decreasing, but observed a small spike in late October before falling again.
Oct. 29, 1918
Chicago unveiled a day-by-day guide to the reopening of businesses, which extended into mid-November.
Nov. 3, 1918
Influenza quarantines in northern suburbs and along the North Shore — including Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka and Glencoe — were lifted.
Nov. 4, 1918
Dr. John Dill Robertson, the city’s health commissioner — who had banned smoking on all streetcar, elevated train and suburban light rail lines during the epidemic — refused to repeal the new smoking ban.
Commuters on the Illinois Central, Northwestern and other suburban lines, however, were allowed to smoke.
“Why should we go back to the old days, even when the present menace of influenza has disappeared? Chicago has been practically the only great city which has permitted it up to now. Resume smoking on the cars and elevated and spitting and coughing recommences, spreading disease germs.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Oct. 31, 1918
Nov. 9, 1918
The city’s health commissioner said Chicago was “practically out of the woods” of the influenza epidemic.
“In a few days I am sure I shall again be justified in stating that Chicago is the healthiest city in the world.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Nov. 9, 1918
Dec. 2, 1918
One month after the city’s quarantine was lifted, flu cases spiked again in Evanston. The cases, however, didn’t warrant a new quarantine.
Dec. 5, 1918
More than 400 new cases of influenza were reported in Chicago.
Chicago’s health commissioner said the epidemic could last through the winter and plague the area for four years.
“I never admitted that the epidemic was over. I do believe, however, that we will have a smaller number of deaths from the cases now than we had when the epidemic seemed to be at its height a few weeks ago.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Dec. 3, 1918
Dec. 14, 1918
With the total number of flu and pneumonia cases in Chicago nearing 1,000, frequent hand washing was advised by public health officials.
2020: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top pandemic doctor in the U.S., said he was “somewhat serious” when he said Americans “may never shake hands again”, and suggested the nation faces a long and difficult battle with the coronavirus pandemic.
“The hands are a great carrier of disease. It would be a good thing to abolish the shaking of hands while the influenza epidemic is on.”
— John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner, Dec. 14, 1918
End of 1918
All told, the flu sickened nearly 40,000 people in Chicago in 1918 and killed about 10,000.
The disease flared up again in 1919, but with much less force.
Sources: Chicago Tribune archives and reporting; Library of Congress; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Naval Station Great Lakes; University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library; Chicago Tribune archives; “The U.S. Military and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919” study by Carol R. Byerly; National Archives; “Preliminary Report on the Influenza Epidemic in Chicago,” American Journal of Public Health (Nov. 1, 1918); U.S. Navy; Encyclopedia Britannica; The New York Times
Created by the Chicago Tribune Dataviz team. On Twitter @ChiTribGraphics
(function(document) {
var CSS = [
“//graphics.chicagotribune.com/timeline-1918-flu/css/styles.css”
];
CSS.forEach(function(url) {
var link = document.createElement(‘link’);
link.setAttribute(‘rel’, ‘stylesheet’);
link.setAttribute(‘href’, url);
document.head.appendChild(link);
});
})(document);
