Dallas Morning News Archives
February, 1919
The Spanish Influenza epidemic is in full swing and has been since January of 1918. It will continue until late 1920.
The Dallas Morning News for February of 1919 is plastered with advertisements of snake oils claiming to either protect you or cure you of flu. The death notices are numerous with details of funerals being held for people of all ages having died from influenza. One article, dated February 9, 1919, states that Beaumont, Texas has lost 166 people to the flu with an addition 54 people dying of pneumonia. Several articles debate the origins of the flu. One such article claims that the higher the humidity, the less chance you have of contracting influenza. (Which, interestingly, turns out to be true. https://www.livescience.com/27533-flu-transmission-humidity.html)
100 years later, the flu is still rough but our panic currently is over the coronavirus.
Image: An American Red Cross Worker sprays the throat of a soldier at Love Field. November 1918.
Taken from: Flashback Dallas.
