Download PDF Version of our Newsletter here
Most of us were still enjoying normal activities with family and friends, working and running businesses in late January when B.C.’s first identified case of COVID 19 was made public. Within weeks, our lives changed as 
Coronavirus rapidly spread into a global health crisis. With supply chain demands stretched, the population concerned itself with avoiding catching the virus and procuring much-needed equipment. Businesses closed, health care converted mainly to pandemic management and those who could, stayed at home. We followed CDC guidelines daily and waited for answers and aid.
We seem to have a pandemic approximately every 100 years: In 1720, The Plague; 1820, Cholera; 1920, Spanish Flu; 2020, Coronavirus. The first known flu virus was scientifically identified in the late 1800’s and scientists now believe that there have been 15 viral pandemics in the last 500 years.
In 1918, following World War 1, the Spanish Flu hit the world hard. The Spanish Flu came in 3 waves; Spring, summer and winter. Despite travel being limited to train and ship, there was greatly increased post-war population movement worldwide and consequently, no single country seemed to have escaped the Spanish Flu. In late August 1918, military ships departed the English port city of Plymouth carrying troops unknowingly infected with this new, second wave and far deadlier strain of Spanish flu. As these ships arrived in cities like Brest in France, Boston in the United States and Freetown in west Africa, the second wave of the global pandemic began in earnest.
“The rapid movement of soldiers around the globe was a major spreader of the disease,” says James Harris, an historian at Ohio State University who studies infectious diseases. “The entire military-industrial complex of moving lots of men and material in crowded conditions was certainly a huge contributing factor in the ways the pandemic spread.” Properties of the virus were not clear- knowledge of modes of transmission
and vulnerable demographics were not evident until many become ill and scientists attempted to gather anecdotal data. Data was not easily assembled due to limited telecommunications, lack of any global health system organization and the sudden, explosion of unmanaged data. Cases and deaths from Spanish Flu could not really be counted as reporting was impossible. The Spanish Flu largely affected males between the ages of 20-40 years, pregnant women and people already debilitated. Those with the then-common tuberculosis were the first to succumb. It was during this time when western populations turned to ‘alternative medicine’ practices, having lost faith in traditional ‘medical model ‘medicine. Science could not catch up quickly enough to meet the need.
The population of the world in 1918 was 500 million people. After the Spanish Flu pandemic, the population was reduced to 450 million. The apocalyptic decline in world health from the Spanish Flu saw more lives taken than during the global losses of lives from the First World War.
People were frightened and sought their own treatments- eating oranges was encouraged. Smoking was also encouraged as it was thought to be effective in killing the Spanish Flu virus.
A significant impediment to the management of the Spanish Flu pandemic was the severe worldwide shortage of nurses. Sadly, at that time the American Red Cross had refused to use the trained African American nurses until the pandemic was waning. Today, there is a shortage of caregivers, particularly in Ontario, where the Army has had to come in to look after the elderly. Nursing shortages seem to continue to be a pervasive theme throughout history.
Coronavirus has hit the world population hard but science and rapid 
communication has limited what could have been a lot worse. The front-line caregiving staff are educated and dedicated, have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE’s) and are protected by strict protocols. Covid-19 is still a pandemic and we are seeing less fear in health providers with guidelines and knowledge. Workflow and family life has been greatly disrupted. The amount of devastation remains severe however contained in a way that historically was not possible. Let us not be complacent, rather let us remain vigilant and cautious in case of a second and third wave. We can greatly influence potential tragedy.
