Next pandemic live-read. Pale Rider, by Laura Spinney, about the Spanish Flu. I'm relentless.https://amzn.to/2Fg1TaI
-
-
Book has 8 parts with 2-5 chapters each. Part 1 is a history of flu viruses. They date to agriculture since they need higher population densities. More co-adapted to humans than malaria or leprosy, not as exclusively parasitic on us as mumps, measles, rubella.
Show this thread -
So birds are thought to be the natural reservoir of flu viruses, and pigs an intermediate host. Makes sense that we’ve had avian and swine flus.
Show this thread -
Discussion of how the flu was likely very deadly when it first appeared between 5-12k years ago and adapted to humans. Some discussion of native Americans getting wiped out by European diseases. Dry opening so far, but I appreciate the context setting. Will stop here tonight.
Show this thread -
1580 was the first properly documented flu pandemic. 10% of Rome died: 8000. Two in 18th century. 19th century was peak of crowd diseases generally.
Show this thread -
Industrial revolution cities “... were unable to sustain themselves— they needed a constant influx of healthy peasants from the countryside to make up for the lives lost to infection. Wars too brough epidemics in their wake.”
Show this thread -
1830 and 1889, two flu pandemics in 18th century. So these things are not common. Wonder if there’s been a coronavirus pandemic before SARS-COV-2 and -1.
Show this thread -
1889 “Russian” flu — 3 waves, mild-severe-mild. 1 million. First one to be statistically profiled. It also attacked adults, not just elderly and children. Apparently Edvard Munch Scream was fly inspired
Show this thread -
By early 20th century cities were self-sustaining thanks to germ theory of disease, vaccines, and sanitation. Wars became deadlier than epidemics and military doctors learned to control disease in conflict. But viruses still a mystery.
Show this thread -
Even in the 19th century people thought of epidemics like earthquakes. Acts of god and beyond control. Hmm. Even with earthquakes today you can sort of manage risks by building on bedrock far from fault lines. I guess plate tectonics was like germ theory.
Show this thread -
“In England [the plague’s] last visitation coincided with the Spanish flu” Infectious disease was still the big killer. Antibiotics hadn’t yet been discovered. Modern germ theory was still pretty new.
Show this thread -
Pasteur and Koch did their work between 1850-80. As new in 1918 as genetics today (which was unknown then) Viruses were discovered in 1890. So as new then as the World Wide Web today. Modernity is young.
Show this thread -
March 4th 1918, guy named Albert Gitchell reported sick to the infirmary at Camp Funston in Kansas. Conventionally regarded as the start of the pandemic.
Show this thread -
By May, all over Europe and starting in Africa, by end of May in India. by June/July in China, Japan, Australia. Unclear where it started, but war helped spread it fast.
Show this thread -
3/4 of French forces and half the British forces fell ill. This was the milder first wave.
Show this thread -
Longish tour of the spread of the second wave. Rather dry account of the complex pattern of spread. Peppered with a few anecdotes featuring Jung, Yeats, Kafka, Leo Szilard, etc. The war wraps and celebrations immediately cause crowd superspread events.
Show this thread -
Second wave was deadliest and ended by December. Australia was the only major region that kept it out via quarantine. But third wave in summer 1919 got them too. So 3 waves of a few months each. Kinda different from the relatively continuous ooga-booga of Covid.
Show this thread -
Now that we’ve surveyed the station-temporal contours, on to Chapter 4, about the disease itself. Mostly mild in first wave but deadly in second. Mutation? Most deaths due to bacterial pneumonia, Faces and extremities turned dark and they came up with a color coded death watch.
Show this thread -
So far I’ll admit this book is very dry relative to others. This African-grandmother circling narrative model is a little almanac-like. I think we’re going to go over the 3 waves with a dozen different lenses.
Show this thread -
“The distress of the bereaved was compounded by the look of the cadaver: not just the blackened face and hands, but the horribly distended chest” That’s Spanish Flu. Do Covid victims look as distressing?
Show this thread -
Extended section on the symptoms. It’s interesting to compare this to the relatively limited descriptions of blac death in the Tuchman book. Distant mirror vs proximal mirror. That came alive better but this feels more grimly real and less like aestheticized fiction.
Show this thread -
“Delirium was common... [a doctor] described his patients’ anxiety-provoking sensation that the end of the world was nigh, and their episodes of violent weeping.”
Show this thread -
Vignette in Rio, anchored by the story of a young man, Nava, living with middle-class uncle’s family. He fell sick. Depressingly familiar tale of good shortages and closed schools. It was initially dismissed as an old-people-killer and elites didn’t want over-reaction.
Show this thread -
Vaccines had only just been socialized. Ten years earlier smallpox vaccinations had led to vaccine riots in Brazil. By 1918 most were vaccinated but state public health was still unpopular.
Show this thread -
Bodies piling up in street. A famous carnival reseller, Jamanta, Jose Luis Cordeiro, drove a tram up and down the streets collecting bodies and dumping them at the graveyard. The church bells rang continuously driving people living nearby nuts. Shades of NYC under Covid.
Show this thread -
“Terror transformed the city, which took on a post-apocalyptic aspect. Footballers played to empty stadia” Err why? They didn’t have TV...
Show this thread -
Color blindness was a symptom, so many accounts are shaped by the bleak colors. The book takes its title inspiration from one such, a Katherine Anne Porter story. Pale refers to the literal paleness. This pandemic was witnessed in black and white by many https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Horse,_Pale_Rider …
Show this thread -
Chapter ends with the death of Nava’s pretty second cousin who he appears to have had a crush on. This thing was very quick compared to Covid. In and out in 2 months but huge toll very quickly. Must have been like a horror movie.
Show this thread -
Chapter 5. Extended riff on dangers of naming diseases poorly (eg swine flu is not spread by pigs but pork exportsxweee banned by several countries anyway). Discussion of CDC naming guidelines which looks grim in light of Trump drumming on China/Wuhan virus.
Show this thread -
Spanish Flu was of course not Spanish. It had been in US, UK, France for months before it arrived in Spain. Wartime censorship plus neutrality of Spain plus encouragement from the nations at war led to the name sticking.
Show this thread -
This book is making me relive March/April in a deja vu way, and also re-frightening me, which is good. I might have been getting sloppy. Earlier this week, someone in my close circle died of Covid, much too young, and it was a sudden sharp reality check. This is still very real.
Show this thread - Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.