Existing comment:
Why is the 1918 flu sometimes called a forgotten pandemic?
The 1918 flu pandemic is largely absent from our country's cultural memory. With a few recent exceptions very little has been published about the topic for general, non-medical audiences. What is the reason for this gap in historical recollection? Here are a few possibilities:
There was a World War going on.
The 1918 flu coincided with the final months of World War I, a bloody, devastating war that had occupied the minds of the American people since the US entered in 1917.
The 1918 flu was there and then it was "gone."
Even though we know the 1918 flu virus never totally disappeared, the pandemic itself did not last very long, in fact the end was only a year or so after the initial outbreak.
Censorship
News of the widespread devastation of the flu was censored in the popular press. Government officials, law enforcement, and military leaders in 1918 chose to downplay the severity of the flu in order to maintain social order in the States, and to preserve morals and tactical position on the warfront. |