“The Spanish Flu was really in a league of its own,” said Laura Spinney today at Hay. Her new book, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it Changed the World, explores the pandemic of the early 20th century and discusses how it shaped global society.
She opened her talk with the staggering statistic that it is believed that up to 100 million in total were killed by the Spanish flu alone. She compared the numbers to the death tolls of the two World Wars, arguing that the Spanish flu had a greater effect on history than has been previously recognised.
Despite its name, Spanish Flu didn't originate in Spain, Laura explained. Unlike in other flu-affected countries such as Britain during the First World War, unfiltered Spanish journalists in politically neutral Spain were allowed to write about the outbreak. As a result, other countries, where journalists were not allowed to report on the illness, used Spain as a scapegoat.
Reading from her book, she looked at anecdotes from across the globe, telling tales of starving families in Brazil, and footballers who played to empty stadiums. She also touched on Jewish communities in Russia who turned to alcohol as a means of oblivion in the catastrophic situation. “This disease did not discriminate between new hands and old timers,” she read. Due to its emergence in 1918, she looked at how the nature of the First World War fed the pandemic, resulting in injured soldiers dying and global movement facilitating the flu’s spread. “More people died of infection than combat (in World War One),” she said before adding that that flu is “only commemorated as a sub-story of the war.”
When asked about its modern relevance by a member of the audience, Laura suggested that a flu pandemic could happen again. She cited the 2013 World Bank investigation that if there was a worldwide outbreak, an estimated 33 million people could die. Despite the pessimistic predictions, Laura championed good nursing and medical developments. For the medical journalist, it’s all a question of preparation and understanding.
If you missed this, you might also like Event 383, Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why at 5.30pm on Saturday, 2 June.
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