NYT is behind a paywall.
However, from a
history site:
Cities that passed masking ordinances in the fall of 1918 struggled to enforce them among the small portion of people who rebelled. Common punishments were fines, prison sentences and having your name printed in the paper. In one
horrific incident in San Francisco, a special officer for the board of health shot a man who refused to wear a mask as well as two bystanders.
This was far different from the treatment San Francisco’s leaders received when they didn’t comply. At a boxing match, a
police photographer captured images of several supervisors, a congressman, a justice, a Navy rear-admiral, the city’s health officer and even the mayor, all without masks. The health officer paid a $5 fine and the mayor later paid a $50 fine
, but unlike other “mask slackers,” they received no prison time (not to mention no one shot at them).
Different era, same hypocrisy amongst the political elites as we see today.
Just Like today:
Nancy Tomes, a distinguished professor of history at Stony Brook University who has
written about public health measures during the 1918-1919 flu pandemic says
while there were pockets of resistance to mask-wearing in 1918 and 1919, it was not widespread.
And the orders were short lived. We are nearing 2 years now.
Almost everyone out there, around here anyway, IS wearing a mask - including me - because rational people do NOT need mandates from hypocrites on high (like Tlaib, and Obama's 500 party guests) to tell them to wear masks if it makes sense at the moment.
It's truly perplexing and difficult to relate to those who require external direction and forced compliance.
In 1918 the population of the United States was roughly 103 million, while near the end of 2020 it stood at roughly 330 million, by the way. Adjusted for population increase - which you must do - that means that a large percentage of the population died from the Spanish flu, while Covid killed a small percentage. There were NO antibiotics in 1918 to kill secondary infections, that also killed so many.
"According to CDC statistics compiled by a study in JAMA Covid-19 killed 345,000 people in 2020 and now stands at around half a million as stated by the New York Times. Adjusted for the population growth of over 200 million people and holding the death rates constant, the 1918 Flu would have killed over 2 million people if it occured today, which is more than four times greater than Covid-19."
It mostly wrapped up within a year, from March 1918- March 1919. We are 1.5 years in, and a tiny, tiny percentage are dying, far less than 1%, from most accounts. Like .0014 percent. More die from accidents, heart attacks, and cancer. For the Spanish flu, most of the population was vulnerable - the young, the old, and children. In Covid, mostly the elderly - nearly all of whom have been vaccinated - are vulnerable, as well as those with co-morbidities.
This is not that. We will have to go on as a nation and a world, and we must not do it as a police state or it will never end.
