Published: November 09, 2009 08:30 am      

JACOBS: Unclean?

Stay home and get some fresh air

Everywhere I go, I’m reminded that people who are sick should stay home. It’s on posters and in articles, it’s on the radio and TV. So why are so many sick people wandering around loose, spreading germs like flower petals at a hippie wedding?

Here’s a suggestion: If you’re sick, and really can’t stand to stay home, either because you don’t have sick days or absolutely need to be somewhere, how about if you take a page from the old leper book and shout “unclean,” everywhere you go? It’ll at least give innocent passersby a chance to scatter.

Several months ago, when the H1N1 flu reared up on its hind legs, Ed Erwin brought me a notebook of clippings he made about the 1918 influenza pandemic. All the articles ran in the Dallas Morning News, and he made the book to satisfy his own curiosity.

Lots of experts are comparing this outbreak to the 1918 great Spanish flu epidemic, and they keep pointing out that 20 to 40 million around the world people died of that flu outbreak. One thing they keep neglecting to mention is that back then the flu, tuberculosis, and other diseases were treated with air.

I am not making this up.

At the end of the 1800s, the theory that there were little invisible bugs called germs that could make you sick was still a pretty radical idea. Before the Germ Theory, experts relied on the Miasma Theory, which said there was good air and bad air. Bad air made you sick, and it smelled bad. Some European cases of cholera had proven the germ theory pretty well, but people still liked the air thing. Let’s face it, clean air makes sense. Invisible bugs sounds like a joke.

On Oct. 10, 1918, Dallas has several hundred cases of influenza, and a meeting was held between government and medical officials. This is part of the report of that meeting:

“The opinion of the majority of the doctors in attendance was that the public schools should not be closed, for the reason that the children are just as well off in well-ventilated buildings and under the direction of the school authorities as they would be at home playing with their neighbors. It was pointed out that open air and sunshine is an enemy to all diseases and many of the children would be in better care in school than kept in close quarters at home.”

Maj. John O. McReynolds of Camp Dick recommended closing “picture shows” because “attending these places of amusement lowers the resistance because of impure air and lack of light and ventilation.”

A report on Oct. 12, 1918, stated that the Ennis mayor ordered the closure of “all picture shows, churches, schools, drink stands, pool halls, lodge and clubrooms, and all public gatherings.”

I shudder to think of drink stands. You just know they didn’t have disposable cups back then.

There’s no report of how Navarro County handled things, but on Oct. 19, 1918, Navarro County Commissioner Bal Westbrook died of the flu, along with Kerens farmer Crystal Talley. Hester McConnico, assistant Kerens postmaster, also died.

On Oct. 22, 1918, the government reported that conditions were improving, and the picture shows reopened, as presumably did the drink stands.

By the end of 1919, an estimated 675,000 Americans had died of flu in less than two years. By comparison, an estimated 116,700 Americans died fighting in World War I.

A few years ago, the Centers for Diseases Control published an article stating that they found the grave of a guy who died from the 1918 flu and recreated the virus. They figure it was a bird flu, and they aren’t sure why so many people died. The world had experienced flu outbreaks before, but none so lethal. It remains a mystery.

Back then, they blamed the bad air. I’m betting on the drink stands.

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Janet Jacobs is a Daily Sun staff writer. Her column appears on Sundays. She may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com