21. Average Americans didn’t know of the illness until it reached their community
The American people were less informed in 1918. Most of what they knew about world events and social situations came from the gossip of their neighbors and the content of their local newspapers. There was no 24-hour news cycle, no daily press conferences from national leaders, nor even local authorities. Philadelphia’s problems were of little concern to residents of Cleveland. The flu was a seasonal event, best handled locally by doctors and nurses. Locals had tried and true methods of combating it, which were used every flu season as they had been for generations.
When the flu struck it was a local event in the eyes of most Americans, not another step in a global battle. Its severity was stunning, and many communities experienced a backlash against the local authorities’ failure to contain it, but they were short-lived. One of the most memorable factors of the Spanish Influenza is that it was almost completely forgotten. Newspapers reported it as it occurred and ignored it after it was over in their area. The global impact of the Spanish Flu all but vanished from the record. It became a forgotten disaster, unworthy of mention as just another bout of the flu which occurred during wartime. The 50 million losses became part of the casualties of the First World War.