How To Bristow Influenza Pandemic

American Pandemic In the early years of 1918 through 1920, influenza stormed around the world in the worst pandemic in recorded history, killing at least fifty million people, and more than half a million of them were Americans. Yet, despite the devastation, many groups of people within the United States handed this epidemic very differently from each other. There were differences between “men as well as women, whites as well as people of color, middle and upper classes, as well as the working class…”(Bristow p.9). After all the commotion of this monstrosity, and how it was feared, Americans had also neglected the pandemic and soon erased all events from their memory and history. In the beginning of the outbreak of influenza know as “the Spanish flu,” Americans were willing to accept public health officials guidance in the early weeks of the crisis. Most looked at the public health officials as hope and a cure to the sickness. As months passed, these officials were not successful in containing the flu. Americans had grown impatient and resistant against their help toward the public. The poor and people of color in particular, often resisted such interventions and relied instead on the standards and practices of their own communities. Bristow claims, “Race
9). The women seemed very comfortable expressing their feelings about the illness and repeated concern for the health of their friends and family. They expressed their grief “openly” (Bristow p.57). The women who kept their families “safe” or “healthy” knew that this was not permanent and could not stop the inevitable from happening. Iconic Amelia Earhart wrote about a friend of hers that was a recovering and surviving influenza victim. She expressed how she feared it and yet, she had worked in an influenza ward in