The Great Influenza

My book club chose this book, "The Great Influenza-The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History" by John Barry in November. Seemed like a timely topic. Yet attendance last night was sparse. Was it because this book had 400 pages? Well, I have to admit I skimmed quite a few pages myself. So much detail! Some of the detail was interesting such as the medical symbol of a snake winding around a stick. Back in the days of Hippocrates, people with infections on their legs used a stick to bear some of the weight. The treatment was to use a trained snake to bite the infected spot and suck the poison out. Yikes. Most people know of this 1918 flu as the Spanish Flu. Is that because it started in Spain? No, it started here in the US. Because Spain suffered more than other countries? No. Because it ended in Spain? No. Because Spain had the only government brave enough to talk about it. The US, fearful of anti-war sentiment, kept silent. The flu started at a military barracks. Men were shipped out overseas and took the flu germs with them. Military bases such as Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois and Fort Devens in Massachusetts (Offspring #1 has been at both) were nearly wiped out. John Barry does a thoroughly good job describing the social impact on the flu. Spitting on the sidewalk earned you a big fine. Some cities were overwhelmed. People wore surgical masks in public. The infrastructure could not support burying this many dead corpses. Many government workers died tried to keep up. People were panicked. Medical science did not have a flu vaccine yet. Doctors tried all kinds of things including injections of hydrogen peroxide. Nobody knew what to do. The leader of our discussion is a nurse. This winter she gave out flu shots. At first the H1N1 shots were restricted to immediate family members of children under 6 months old. She saw people lie about their family members because they were so desperate to get vaccinated. We had a really good discussion last night. This isn't a book I would normally pick up and read. The good thing about book club is that it pushes me outside my usual reading materials.