The Spanish flu pandemic which caused devastation across the world in 1918-19 wasn’t the greatest to strike, nor even the only flu epidemic (there had been others in 1900, 1908 and 1915). It was notable because it struck so soon after the traumas of the Great War – and followed in its wake, the second of the four horses of the Apocalypse and for the potential economic and social impacts it had on a war-ravaged Britain.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic – Its Spread and Death Toll
Although it isn’t clear where or how the 1918 outbreak of ‘flu originated (The Lancet reports that there had been sporadic outbreaks at various places in Europe and the BBC places the first recorded case of the epidemic in Kansas in March 1918) it was generally referred to as ‘Spanish flu’ (though Juliet Nicolson reports that it was given different names in different countries).
Its appearance in the last summer of the war was by no means ignored and Nicolson notes that the British authorities were discussing how to tackle this new threat just two days after the end of hostilities. Wherever it first appeared, the virus moved rapidly across Europe and the world, unwittingly transported by newly demobilised troops and shared in the massive communal celebration which marked the end of the war.
All too often, however, the return of soldiers to the thankful embraces of their loved ones was a short-lived joy and in many cases was a death sentence. The total number killed is unclear: Alice Reid notes that contemporary estimates put the worldwide death toll at between 10 and 21 million, while more recent estimates suggests a figure up to five times higher.
Economic and Social Impacts
Little research exists on the economic impact of Spanish ‘flu, although the progress of the epidemic has been used to model possible impacts of a future pandemic. But there will have been significant losses to manpower and economic production given that the ‘flu primarily claimed the lives of the young and healthy – precisely the same demographic which had suffered in the war.
Traditionally, large scale epidemics or pandemics have brought about social change – in England, for example, the savage devastation of the Black Death in the fourteenth century is often considered as a causal factor in the ending of feudal system. Such changes might have been expected to follow the Spanish ‘flu outbreak, especially in class-bound Britain.
In fact any impacts that the epidemic might have had was dwarfed by the social impacts of the war which preceded it. Change was already underway and the Great War was already working as a social leveller (by, among other things removing many of the officer class and bringing more women into the workplace).
But though overshadowed by the horrors of the war the ‘flu was a social leveller too. Juliet Nicolson indicates that money was no protector and that death rates varied little between rich and poor (though Chowell and others note that they were markedly lower in rural areas than in urban).
It can be argued that the flu contributed to an undermining of religious faith which had already been badly weakened by the events of the preceding four years. With so many men buried abroad without a church funeral for their families to attend, and with fewer marriages (as a result of so many deaths) and a consequent reduction in Christenings, Nicolson argues, there was less of a reliance on church ritual and a greater reliance on self.
If the flu itself had no identifiable impact on British society it certainly had the effect of further reinforcing those changes which had already been brought about by the Great War. It may be that, had the Great War never taken place, the flu epidemic (which killed more people worldwide than the war had done) would itself have precipitated similar changes and have been seen as a more significant instrument of social change.
Sources:
- BBC online “The ‘bird flu’ that killed 40 million
- Juliet Nicolson The Great Silence John Murray 2009
- Alice Reid “The Effects of the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic on Infant and Child Health in Derbyshire” Medical Health 2009
- Chowell et al “The 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in England and Wales: spatial patterns in transmissibility and mortality impact” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences 2007
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