Two Pandemics, 100 Years of Change

By Sofiia Rusyn

History tells the tales but only our current worldwide pandemic can give us a sense of what it must have been like.

One hundred years ago the world was dealing with the Spanish Flu that wiped out one-third of the Earth’s population. Those numbers make COVID-19 seem relatively harmless, but that was then and this is now.  People had a very different lifestyle, there were no intensive care units, no ventilators and no rapid diagnostic tests. In just two years the Spanish Flu had taken nearly 55,000 Canadians’ lives. 

“The 1918 flu killed 50,000 Canadians in one year,” said Dr. Mark Humphries, Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University. “In 1918, the population of Canada was about eight million, which is about one fifth of what it is today. So, a similar pandemic to 1918 today would kill 250,000 Canadians in one year.”

In a little less than a year, COVID-19 has killed approximately 17,000 Canadians.

“As tragic as those deaths are,” he said. “You also have to keep in mind that the vast majority of those who died, (in 1918) were young, otherwise healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 45 and that’s a very different demographic group than is affected today, predominantly.”

Some villages in Canada were completely wiped out between 1918-1920. The situation was severe in Labrador, Quebec and Indigenous reserves. To prevent Influenza outbreaks, the government issued instructions. The fact is, they were not much different from what the government wants us to do now with COVID-19. People were asked to stay home if possible, use masks outside and disinfect everything in hot water or with alcohol.

“The latest action on the part of the local board of health in its effort to stay the spread of the Influenza, was to issue an urgent request to the public to, as far as possible, stay away from funerals, and to make all funerals private.” (The Toronto World, Oct. 8, 1918)

A century ago, our ancestors were going through the First World War. That meant colossal changes in the social structure, since men were at war abroad and women were doing all the work at home.

“Hospitals, before the outbreaks of Spanish Flu, were on a much smaller scale than we have today,” said Dr. Dan Horner. “A lot of hospitals were still running as sort of private charities. It was really kind of rudimentary … compared to what we have today or even after World War Two,” Dr. Horner said, Professor at Ryerson University Department of Criminology. 

Retired doctors and nurses were asked to come back to work. Pharmacies were working day and night to provide prescriptions to the infected, but it was not as efficient as it was thought to be. “The way they treated the flu was basically with supportive care nurses providing food and the bed to rest in. Largely it was kind of watching and waiting to see how people fought the disease on their own,” Dr. Humphries said. 

To get more people to fight the disease, the government asked people for help. Volunteers could listen to radio lectures and visit training classes for medical practices and start aiding in the hospitals. Kitchener was the first city where local physicians and nurses were unable to control the situation during the biggest wave in the fall of 1918. It took just a couple of days for Toronto to announce on the newspapers’ front pages that volunteers were needed everywhere.

“Voluntary workers as Nurses’ Aids required at once. Also ward maids, orderlies, cooks, cleaners, etc. to help care for victims of Spanish Influenza.” (The Toronto World, Oct. 12, 1918)

Yet there were still places where the situation was under control or at least thought to be. In Guelph there was only one victim in the first two weeks. The regular flu was overcoming the Influenza in numbers, but hospitals were preparing for the worst. Brantford was one of the first cities where churches were ordered to close doors and take vacation. Religion was a huge part of people’s lives; sometimes church was the only place where people could meet, chat and gossip. Spiritual places were working most of the time and caused a lot of new cases around the community.

Infirmaries were closed to visitors, and fifth-year students from medical colleges were requested to fight with doctors against Spanish Flu. The disease was spreading really fast inside of military bases, hospitals and concentration camps. “There was a lot of concern in 1918 in Toronto that soldiers were being kept in crowded barracks, where the flu might spread amongst them because again it tended to kill young otherwise healthy individuals and that would be most soldiers,” Dr. Humphries said.  

A total of 19 deaths in one Polish concentration camp in Niagara, Ont. was recorded just in one day. Soldiers and their families were receiving a better treatment only if they were able to visit the doctors themselves. If it was later in the night or far away, the Hippocratic oath to treat everyone who needs medical assistance, the oath was simply ignored. Mrs. James Warner whose husband was Corporal at the Niagara camp at that time, was one of the unlucky ones who died due to doctor’s neglect, The Toronto World reported. On the night of Oct. 12, 1918 she was feeling very ill, and her neighbours were searching for doctors. They walked more than 30 kilometres around the city, but whoever they asked refused to help. When they arrived home Mrs. Warner was already dead.

“A lot of people didn’t go to hospitals. Especially very wealthy people would often choose to have a nurse at home when they started to get sick at the end of their lives and very poor people just would also die at home because they didn’t have the money,” Dr. Horner said. “They also were consciously trying to avoid it, because they were often poorly treated in hospitals.”

Every pandemic brings benefits and losses to industries and since entertainment and schooling were hardly possible to conduct with people fearing to go outside (and of course there was no internet at that time) it was a time for inventors to create and sell their new devices. One of the ads was for a machine that could prevent catching Influenza.

The Chaz. A Branston Company manufactured the Violet Ray Ozone Generator. It was a box that had multiple tools inside, including an inhalator. The working principle was easy; the patient was being cured by high voltage and frequency, something like a modern-day electrotherapy.

The schools that continued to work needed to have a strategy on working through the pandemic. The plan was created in the first two weeks at the beginning of the second wave, but ironically was used only for just a couple of days. Schools then closed “till further notice.” Even in this tough position people were still living – marrying, giving birth, working, travelling, fighting or learning. Life was not stopping.

There is still no known vaccine for The Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu just disappeared, the same way as it appeared. People had developed an immunity for it, but at the cost of many lives. 

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