There were only a small number of specialist mask manufacturers, such as the Prophylacto Manufacturing Company of Chicago, and they could not meet the surge in demand. In a case of history repeating itself, this week the mayor of Los Angeles asked people to wear masks when out in public shopping.Īs mask use gained pace across Europe and North America the issue of supply became acute. Niven, the medical officer of health for Manchester, in northern England. On the other side of the Atlantic similar steps were being taken – the Committee of the Academie de Médicine of Paris recommended the wearing of face masks in the French captial in early November 1918. The campaign worked and other Californian cities followed suit, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, followed by states across the US. Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesĪnyone found outdoors without a mask could be fined or even imprisoned. Warehouses were converted to house the infected people quarantined. The city’s mayor, along with members of the Board of Health, endorsed a Red Cross publicity blitz which told the public: “Wear a Mask and Save Your Life! A Mask is 99% Proof Against Influenza.” Songs were written about mask wearing, including one ditty that featured the lyrics: “Obey the laws, and wear the gauze. The wearing of face masks in public became mandatory on US soil for the first time.Īfter San Francisco made masks mandatory in public, an awareness campaign began. On October 24, 1918, the city’s elected legislative body, the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, realizing that drastic action needed to be taken with over 4,000 cases recorded, unanimously passed the Influenza Mask Ordinance. In October 1918, as San Francisco received the pandemic’s second wave, hospitals began reporting a rise in the number of infected patients. And an ocean liner with infected patients became a talking point.īut one notable difference is that it was the United States which led the world in mask wearing. Then as now, warehouses were repurposed into quarantine hospitals. Globalization facilitated its spread as soldiers fighting in World War I took the flu around the globe. For modern scientific discussions of plague and its existence in the world today, see the CDC website and this fact sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO).While origin theories about the 1918 virus still abound, it was assigned a country specific name: the Spanish Flu. Today, the plague is still around but because of antibiotics, it is rarely fatal. While largely inaccurate from a scientific and historical perspective, they provide fascinating insights into how people at the time understood and explained the plague.įor modern academic discussions of the plague in world history, including the Black Death, see the works of John Aberth, Michael Dols, and Monica Green. The first modern encyclopedia, published by Denis Diderot in the 18 th century includes two entries on plague, which can be found here and here. While sources on the plague mask itself are limited, we have a lot of information about outbreaks of plague in 17 th-century Europe, such as the diary of British naval administrator Samuel Pepys. Additionally, this article from National Geographic explores why the mask emerged and how it reflected 17 th-century European ideas about medicine and science. To learn more about the history of this outfit, see the works of Winston Black, including this article about separating fact from fiction. The beaked plague doctor is one of the most popular images associated with the plague and with pre-modern European medicine. It claimed tens of millions of lives across Afro-Eurasia in three separate pandemics. We’d like to thank historians Winston Black and John Aberth for advising on this lesson’s content.īefore the emergence of modern medicine, the plague was one of the most destructive and feared illnesses in human history.
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