Every year in the US, flu season hits. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of the flu usually reach their peak between December and February, but basically, everyone's in for months of misery. Small consolation? It's not as bad as the Spanish flu. History says that one was more than a little different — it kicked off in the spring of 1918 on the tail end of World War I, and it was downright brutal. And there's one thing that should be cleared up right away...
Every year in the US, flu season hits. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of the flu usually reach their peak between December and February, but basically, everyone's in for months of misery. Small consolation? It's not as bad as the Spanish flu. History says that one was more than a little different — it kicked off in the...
In 1918, children used to skip rope to a rhyme that captured the tenor of the time. Via Stanford University, it went like this: "I had a little bird. Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza." Unfortunately, Enza flew in through a lot of windows. The 1918 flu pandemic ended more lives in a single year than that the Black Death killed over the course...
Some strange things happen when there's a global pandemic, and first is the loss of normalcy. It doesn't take long to forget what it was like to run to the store without a mask or get together with friends without having to sit six feet apart... and yell the personal details of whatever conversation you're having. Pandemics are nothing new, and they've...
A pandemic is a terrible thing to live though. An inescapable illness, marching across the world, claiming lives and leaving nothing but more illness, death, and hardship in its wake... that's dire stuff. And it's happened a lot. The Black Death might be the most famous one, but there's also been widespread outbreaks of things like cholera, influenza...
Human beings are an ever-evolving species. Once, we carried spears and created fantastic works of art on the walls of French caves. Today, we carry smartphones and trip over things because we don't ever look where we're going. Yes, the human species gets better and better all the time. Since the Industrial Revolution, things have changed at such a...
