How the World Learned to Manage the FluWhat does it mean for a disease to be “endemic”? It doesn’t mean the disease disappeared. When epidemiologists use the word “endemic,” they mean that a disease is occurring “at an expected level in a location during a period of time,” explains epidemiologist René Najera, editor of The History of Vaccines, an online resource by […]Read more
How a Vaccine Slowed the Spread of ChickenpoxChickenpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus that leads to itchy skin eruptions, which are sometimes compared to a “dew drop on a rose petal.” Until the development of a chickenpox vaccine in the late 20th century, the disease was a common childhood illness that could cause serious health problems in […]Read more
The First ‘Vaccine Passports’ Were Scars from Smallpox VaccinationsAt the turn of the 20th century, the United States was in the grip of a full-blown smallpox epidemic. During the five-year outbreak from 1899 to 1904, government health officials confirmed 164,283 cases of smallpox, but the real numbers may have been five times as high. To slow the spread of the highly infectious and […]Read more
How World War I’s Legacy Eclipsed the 1918 PandemicWorld War I came to an end on November 11, 1918—nine months after the first cases of what was referred to as the “Spanish Flu” were reported in the United States. Against the backdrop of the war, the 1918 influenza pandemic surged at a time when people were already experiencing scarcity in everyday supplies, coping […]Read more
The Deadliest Events in US HistoryIt’s a grim calculation, counting those Americans who have died in service to their country, as targets of terrorist attacks, amid natural disasters or as victims of pandemic disease. Here are major events from history that have inflicted a devastating toll on American lives. 1. The COVID-19 Pandemic: 1,000,000 In early 2020, the first reports circulated […]Read more
When the Supreme Court Ruled a Vaccine Could Be MandatoryA 1905 decision provided a powerful and controversial precedent for the flexing of government authority.Read more
4 Diseases You’ve Probably Forgotten About Because of VaccinesWidespread vaccination has helped decrease or virtually eliminate many dangerous and deadly diseases in the United States. Yet because vaccines have been so effective at removing threats, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how significant they have been to public health. “We’re very bad at measuring risk,” says epidemiologist René Najera, editor of The History […]Read more
Why the 1918 Flu Pandemic Never Really EndedAn unthinkable more than 50 million people worldwide died from the 1918-1919 flu pandemic commonly known as the “Spanish Flu.” It was the deadliest global pandemic since the Black Death, and rare among flu viruses for striking down the young and healthy, often within days of exhibiting the first symptoms. In the United States, the […]Read more
How the Flu Pandemic Changed Halloween in 1918“Witches Must Beware,” declared the Baltimore American on October 31, 1918. The Maryland city’s health commissioner had placed a ban on public Halloween events, instructing the police chief to prevent people from holding “carnivals and other forms of public celebrations.” The United States was in the midst of the second, and most deadly, wave of […]Read more
Why African Americans Were More Likely to Die During the 1918 Flu PandemicWhen it came to getting healthcare during the 1918 influenza epidemic, America’s Black communities, hobbled by poverty, Jim Crow segregation and rampant discrimination, were mostly forced to fend for themselves. Opportunities for hospital care proved scarce, leaving many relying on family care and, where available, the small but burgeoning ranks of Black nurses. When the […]Read more
What Happens When a President Becomes Ill or Incapacitated While in Office?Illness can impact a president’s ability to conduct the duties of office, but for most of U.S. history, protocol for what happens when a president got sick was minimal. The Founding Fathers anticipated the need for a line of succession, and the Constitution says the vice president becomes acting president if the elected one dies, […]Read more
When the US Government Tried to Fast-Track a Flu VaccineAfter Private David Lewis collapsed and died during a basic training exercise at New Jersey’s Fort Dix on February 4, 1976, an investigation into the 19-year-old’s premature death identified a long-dormant, but notorious killer as the cause. Blood tests conducted at the Center for Disease Control revealed that Lewis had contracted a type of swine flu […]Read more