Randy
In the preceding documents, many different sources express similar points using anecdotal evidence of the Influenza outbreak after World War I. The topics talked about in specific are charity during a tough time, religion and how it relates to epidemics, and ignorance, whether it be the government underestimating influenza, or purely citizens not understanding how to react to the disease.

The documents which refer to the theme “charity” are 2, 7, and 9. The first one to do this, 2, speaks of a massive influx of volunteers helping with influenza struck patients. It specifically is from two girls remembering their time volunteering in 1918. It shows how two soldiers were dying every three hours. It emphasizes the point that anyone could …show more content…
This document speaks to ignorance in multiple levels. The primary level is the ignorance of the government in their unpreparedness, as it speaks of the level of staffing having to dramatically increase at an army camp along with pushing far too much paperwork onto the incredibly busy staff who can barely take care of all the dead people. It also uses the statement “It beats any sight they ever had in France after a battle”, which speaks to the ignorance of the situation in a whole. The comparisons of the war to the epidemic further shows that people immediately compare the ongoing epidemic to the War, almost showing the ridiculousness of the warfare that it’s numbers matched that of a large, natural epidemic. The second to speak of ignorance is document 3, which is spoken by a British colonist in West Africa. It described people were “turned out to the street”. It shows ignorance twofold, firstly the ignorance of the people who were putting their own citizens to die out on the street, and secondly the ignorance of the Colonists, who were not attempting much care at all. They were letting the citizens die of poor care and have to desert their family members, almost seeing themselves as superior, looking down at the citizens as if they were barbaric. It’s interesting that this is a British point of view on this situation, as the African population is going through a lot of pain and death while they simply overlook it. The third document to speak of this topic is document 6, which is not the ignorance of the speaker in this case, but instead the speaker speaking of the ignorance of the government. It describes how Brazil knew of the influenza outbreak in Europe but still refused to deny ships that came into Brazil, and eventually Brazil got infected by influenza. The point of view is of a Brazilian speaking of the “Public Health bureaucracy”, and being angry about it. It shows that governments during