flu

“Not the Bee” circulated a government document containing excellent advice about what to do in a viral pandemic. The document is from the Division of Sanitation of the Department of the Navy. It concerns what to do in the face of the Spanish Flu, which in 1918 infected 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population, killing at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Now that’s a pandemic.

Kathy and I have had a recent taste of influenza A. It’s taken a real toll on our students at U of M, with so many cases even the CDC poked its nose in (1). Our students are all masked and vaxxed, but clearly out and about. Remember, flu numbers were way down last year, probably because of the isolation. So if flu is coming your way, this 103 year old document isn’t bad advice. For coronavirus too.

Reference

1. Delahoy MJ, Mortenson L, Bauman L, Marquez J, Bagdasarian N, Coyle J; Sumner K, Lewis NM, Lauring AS, Flannery B, Patel MM, Martin ET.  Influenza A(H3N2) Outbreak on a University Campus — Michigan, October–November 2021. Morb Mort Weekly Rep (MMWR) December 3, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7049e1.htm?s_cid=mm7049e1_w