Foreword: I composed today's story about a year ago and never published it. The story will give you an idea what it was like about a year ago in the world. Perhaps if we had all obeyed the mask mandate when it was first issued, the COVID-19 virus may have been conquered instead of still killing people today!
It was an ordinary day. Looking through a few of my Lancaster County's Historical Society's "The Journal" when I came across an article written by Patricia Magee in one of the latest, or Fall/Winter 2020/2021 issues. Article was titled "Who Are Those Masked Men?" and was about Patricia's Grandfather Howard and his brother, Tom who were both wearing masks in a photo taken of the two in Philadelphia in the early months of 1919. So, why the masks? Patricia wrote that her paternal grandparents were born in the 1890s and married in 1917, when the second wave of the deadly Influenza Pandemic (Spanish flu) struck in the fall of 1918. Philadelphia was the epicenter in the United States at the time. Then in early 1919's the influenza made another tour of the United States. It was the third time it passed through the United States, but wasn't as deadly as the previous wave that passed through in the fall of the previous year. Tens of thousands of lives were lost during the second wave. It was during that time that Harold and Tom made a trip to Sacramento, California where the photograph was taken. The photographic postcard of the brothers was sent from Salt Lake City and postmarked February 1, 1919. It was sent by Tom's wife Reba who wrote on the rear of the card that it was taken in Sacramento, California and that the flu was so bad every one must wear a mask. There was a $5.00 fine levied on everyone failing to wear a mask. Everyone in the trolley had a mask on and the two brothers looked like bandits. Today that would be about an $80 fine if you were caught without a mask. Perhaps a fine like that today might have had more people wearing a mask and helping to keep the virus in check! The Influenza Pandemic crossed the United States in four distinct waves back then with the first passing through somewhat unnoticed, since the United States was preparing for participation in WWI. 10,000 people died at that time. Our troops carried the flu to Europe and then back again to the states in 1918. Deaths tallied 292,000 between September and December of 1918. Philadelphia had 500,000 cases and 16,000 deaths in just 6 weeks. The Magee brothers made their trip to California during the third wave of the Influenza Pandemic in the spring of 1919. A fourth wave struck the East coast in December of 1919 and accounted for 6,374 deaths just in New York City. By the time the pandemic had finally subsided it had infected 500 million people worldwide. About one-third of the world population had been infected. 50 million people had died worldwide. 675,000 people in the United States had died. And this was with a mask mandate in effect in the United States. Do you think that if we would have had a mask mandate put in place with an $80 fine for not wearing one that we might have fared much better than we have up to this point? Would the population have respected the rights of all citizens and wore a mask to put a stop to the virus if they had known that had happened 100 years ago? I guess we will never know. And, unless we try a bit harder to knock out the virus, we may be in for another wave of the virus next year. It can happen...you know! It did years ago!! Just ask Patricia Magee. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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