San Diego County During The 1918 Flu

Speaker 1: 00:00 Our experience is this pandemic feels like nothing like this has ever happened to us before, but it's not the first time of our suscept the globe. It's helpful to look at what we learned from the last major pandemic in 1918 after world war one and how can future generations learn from us. The San Diego history center has records from 1918 and it has launched a project to collect our own personal stories of this pandemic. To document this moment in history. Joining us now is Iris Inkstrom, professor emeritus of history at the university of San Diego and Elsa saviah, director of external affairs at the San Diego history center. Thank you both so much for joining us. Speaker 2: 00:39 Thanks for having us. Speaker 3: 00:40 Yes, happy to help you out on this. Speaker 1: 00:42 So Elsa, how do we know how San Diego fair during the 1918 flu? What kinds of information do we have from that time? So the way we [inaudible] Speaker 2: 00:51 you can learn about history is through photos. We have 2.5 million black and white photos in our research archive collection at the San Diego history center. And so through photos we're able to learn a lot of what was going on a hundred years ago through the influence of pandemic of 1918 and so there's a lot of similarities that we see the masks, we see that people are staying away from the city, we see that people are staying home. And so through research as well, we're able to learn the differences and the similarities of a hundred years ago to today. Speaker 3: 01:27 And one other thing I wanted to say is we do have a collection of diaries and newspapers from 1918 Speaker 1: 01:34 Irish. The the 1918 flu is sometimes referred to as a Spanish flu, but it didn't originate there at all. Did it? How did it get that name? Briefly? Speaker 3: 01:41 No. The reason it was called the Spanish flu is that Spain was not involved in world war one. And so they were free to broadcast whatever they felt like. And so they talked about the flu and kept talking about how dangerous it was and where it was spreading. And so the only news that people were getting came from Spain. So they just kind of started calling it the, the Spanish flu somewhat in the same way as we, uh, sober people referring to the China virus. It had no more, you know, we, that's not an accurate description. Speaker 1: 02:16 And you say that we here in San Diego saw some of the earliest cases of that flu back in 1918. Why was that? Speaker 3: 02:24 Well, when they were in the, uh, the servicemen, they were, uh, first of all 11 men at the camp Kearney and it seemed to spread there. Then also we had a Naval, uh, operation at Balboa park and so they were housed close together. So the, it's almost a simultaneous breakout between the Navy there and the army at camp Kearney didn't involve too many people. There were like 11 at camp Kearney and uh, just, you know, a handful at Balbo park. But this is how it got started Speaker 1: 02:56 because we were a military center. Interesting. Back then, the illness was pretty much of a mystery to people. Right. What do they know about it? Speaker 3: 03:04 You know, they didn't have very much information like we do down not having internet, not having, you know, communication throughout the world to find out what was happening in different places. They just had to do their best. And uh, although we did have 5,000 sailors in Belvaux park under quarantine and they started issuing directions just like they did with this Corona vote, a virus about, you know, they shut down all the schools, theaters, movie houses, gym, pool halls, churches. Although one exception where the libraries, the library stayed open, but you could only check out a book, couldn't go there to the reading room. You just pick up a book, go back home and, and stay inside. Speaker 1: 03:50 So one of the San Diego Katie's daily briefings now from supervisor Nathan Fletcher said that they reopened too soon back. Then here's that clip. Speaker 4: 04:00 What you see in response to that pandemic was a number of jurisdictions that did not move fast enough to put in place restrictions early and they paid a tremendous upfront costs. But what you will also see in response to that was a number of jurisdictions that came out of their restrictions too soon and they had a second wave that in some ways was much greater than the first wave. Speaker 1: 04:23 So talk to me about that. Speaker 3: 04:24 They thought they were over it and they opened it too soon. They opened it shortly after the armistice in November 17th in 1918 but that was premature and they had to reopen and uh, the restrictions December six. So we have to make sure that we don't do the same thing now and, and uh, remove the restrictions too soon. Speaker 1: 04:48 No. Back in 1918 worldwide, there were 50 million people who died. How does San Diego County do in terms of cases and deaths back in 1918? Speaker 3: 04:57 Yeah, we have to remember that San Diego only had 75,000 people. But out of that, we had 5,040 cases and for about 366 deaths. So, you know, it sounds little, but if you multiplied it in terms of what we have today, if 1.3 million that would translate into 88,000 or almost 90,000 cases and more than 6,000 is it just that we were so much smaller Speaker 1: 05:27 and also looking forward, the, the history center is, is documenting San Diego's experience of the Corona virus. Tell us how you're doing that. Speaker 2: 05:35 So we are collecting, um, stories and what people are doing during the pandemic. Um, if people can go to our website, San Diego history.org and they fill out a questionnaire, a very simple questionnaire that, you know, allows people to talk about what they're going through, how they're coping, what's their experience, um, what's their experience outside the house? Are they all at home? A different questions like that. And so what we're doing is we're documenting history as it happens. And these are historic times. I mean, to see the pandemic similar to the 1918 again in San Diego. Um, you know, we looked up those photos in the archives that show people with masks around San Diego. And I thought just a few months ago when I looked at the photos again, I said, Oh, this would never happen. I mean, how could it, and here we are, but what we want to do and we're doing is collecting the stories and the history of San Diego from all communities. Speaker 2: 06:36 And that's our mission is to collect, um, history and we're doing it. Um, as it happens, we want people from San Ysidro, from national city, from San Marcos, you know, all the way to Julianne to go onto our website, San Diego history.org, because we want to document the, the history from different communities because everybody has a different experience. And so we really encourage people to do that. And we are also looking to get those stories in Spanish. We have a form, uh, very soon that will be in Spanish and it would allow people to enter their, their experiences in Spanish as well. So we encourage everyone. The website is San Diego history.org, and it's the San Diego history center in Babel park. And our mission is to collect history all the time. And especially during these times. So are you looking for photographs as well as personal essays, things like that? Speaker 2: 07:31 Oh definitely. Yes. We're looking for photographs. We're looking for videos that people have taken. They can submit that as well. Uh, we're looking for, um, you know, short essays and we are getting a lot from students already. We've received hundreds of entries and students, you know, are very interested in telling their story. And so, um, it's pretty incredible to hear the different, uh, age racquets whether they're, you know, we heard from a seven year old young lady who moved from Las Vegas because her mother had died. So she came to live with her grandmother, I believe about two years ago. And so she writes about the experience that she's had to go through and now going through the pandemic. And fortunately her grandmother's there to tell her that things are going to be okay. You know, we have to wash our hands, we have to be healthy and we have to keep our distance from people. She also talks about how she's, I'm staying in contact with her classmates and her friends via zoom or Skype or those kinds of things. So it's really detailed information that we're hearing from people and it's pretty incredible. But I think what will even be more incredible is, you know, maybe in a year, 2050 a hundred years from now when people go back and listen to what we went through during the pandemic, I think it's going to be super interesting for people to see photos, videos, the, and to hear from Speaker 1: 08:56 different people in San Diego and what the pandemic was like in 2020 we are in D D living through an historic moment. Thank you so much for helping to document it. That's Elsa saviah, director of external affairs at the San Diego history center. Thank you, Elsa. Thank you. And IRS Inkstrom, professor emeritus of history at the university of San Diego. Thank you so much, Iris. Thank you for having me.