People gave up measures against the flu pandemic a century ago when they got tired of it – and paid a price

Imagine the United States struggling to deal with a deadly pandemic.

State and local authorities promulgate a list of social distance measures, gathering bans, closing orders and masking warrants in an effort to stem the tide of cases and deaths.

The public responds with widespread compliance mixed with more than a hint of grumbling, retreat and even direct challenge. As days turn into weeks, into months, restrictions become more difficult to tolerate.

Owners of theaters and dance halls complain about the financial losses.

Clergy mourn the closure of churches, while offices, factories and, in some cases, even halls may remain open.

Authorities discuss whether children are safer in classrooms or at home.

Many citizens refuse to wear masks in public, some complaining that they feel uncomfortable and others arguing that the government has no right to infringe on their civil liberties.

As familiar as it may seem in 2021, these are real descriptions of the United States during the deadly 1918 flu pandemic. In my research as a medical historian, I have repeatedly seen the many ways in which our current pandemic mirrored that experienced by our ancestors. A century ago.

As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, many people want to know when life will be as it was before the coronavirus. History, of course, is not an exact model for what the future holds. But the way Americans emerged from the previous pandemic may suggest what post-pandemic life will be like this time.

Sick and tired, ready for an end to the pandemic

Like COVID-19, the 1918 influenza pandemic hit sharply and quickly, going from a handful of reported cases in some cities to a national outbreak in a few weeks. Many communities have issued several rounds of various closing orders – corresponding to the ebb and flow of their epidemics – in an attempt to keep the disease under control.

These orders of social detachment worked to reduce cases and deaths. However, just like today, they used to be difficult to maintain. In late autumn, just a few weeks after the orders of social detachment took effect, the pandemic appeared to be coming to an end as the number of new infections declined.

People cried out to get back to their normal lives. The companies pressured the authorities to be allowed to reopen. Believing that the pandemic was over, state and local authorities began to rescind public health decrees. The nation returned its efforts to face the devastation that the influenza had caused.

For the friends, families and co-workers of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died, post-pandemic life was filled with sadness and grief. Many who are still recovering from their attacks with the disease needed support and care while they recovered.

At a time when there was no federal or state safety net, charitable organizations took action to provide resources for families who had lost their livelihoods or to host the countless children orphaned by the disease.

For the vast majority of Americans, however, life after the pandemic appeared to be a hasty rush to normalcy. Hungry for weeks of their city nights, sporting events, religious services, classroom interactions and family reunions, many were eager to return to their old lives.

Following the tips of officials who had – somewhat prematurely – declared the end of the pandemic, Americans were too hasty to return to their pre-pandemic routines. They packed movie theaters and dance halls, packed stores and stores, and gathered with friends and family.

Authorities warned the nation that the cases and deaths would likely continue for months. The burden of public health, however, now fell not on politics, but on individual responsibility.

Predictably, the pandemic has advanced, extending to a third deadly wave that lasted until the spring of 1919, with a fourth wave reaching the winter of 1920. Some officials attributed the resurgence to careless Americans. Others downplayed the new cases or turned their attention to more routine public health issues, including other illnesses, restaurant inspections and sanitation.

Despite the persistence of the pandemic, the flu quickly became old news. Once a regular feature on the front pages, the report quickly fell to sporadic clippings buried in the back of the country’s newspapers. The nation moved on, accustomed to the toll the pandemic had caused and the deaths that were yet to come. To a large extent, people were unwilling to return to socially and economically damaging public health measures.

It’s hard to take it there

Our predecessors can be forgiven for not holding their course any longer. First, the nation was eager to celebrate the recent end of the First World War, an event that may have been greater in the lives of Americans than even the pandemic.

Second, death from illness was a much larger part of life in the early 20th century, and scourges like diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, whooping cough, scarlet fever and pneumonia routinely killed tens of thousands of Americans every year. Furthermore, neither the cause nor the epidemiology of the flu was well understood, and many experts remained unconvinced that measures of social distance had any measurable impact.

Finally, there were no effective flu vaccines to rescue the world from the devastation of the disease. In fact, the flu virus would only be discovered for another 15 years, and a safe and effective vaccine was not available to the general population until 1945. Given the limited information they had and the tools at their disposal, Americans might be able to support it. public health restrictions as long as they reasonably could.

A century later, and a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is understandable that people are now very anxious to return to their old lives. The end of this pandemic will inevitably come, as with all of humanity’s previous experiences.

If we have anything to learn from the history of the 1918 influenza pandemic, as well as our experience so far with COVID-19, however, it is that a premature return to pre-pandemic life risks more cases and more deaths.

And Americans today have significant advantages over those of a century ago. We have a much better understanding of virology and epidemiology. We know that social detachment and masking work to help save lives. More critically, we have several safe and effective vaccines that are being implemented, with an increasingly weekly vaccination rate.

Maintaining all of these coronavirus-fighting factors or decreasing them can mean the difference between a new disease outbreak and a faster end to the pandemic. COVID-19 is much more transmissible than the flu, and several worrying variants of SARS-CoV-2 are already spreading across the world. The deadly third wave of flu in 1919 shows what can happen when people relax their guard prematurely.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]