Influenza erupted across the globe as a mere common cold. In two years from the time the epidemic erupted, a fifth of the world’s population had already been infected. Influenza killed around fifty million people worldwide and infected twenty-eight percent of the total American population . It is estimated that 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic. The impact on the U.S. was of high magnitude, especially within the army in World War I. Due to the economic status of the U.S. at that time, soldiers during that war lived within the trenches and went through very harsh conditions of life. For instance, the total number of the U.S. soldiers who went to Europe to fight the enemy, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy. A report by Crosby showed that an estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for World War I died of influenza.
While others have depicted the country as a “tired nation” in a spiritual sense, Pettit and Bailie argue that post-war apathy was more likely caused by the …show more content…
Each country engaged in World War I tried to contain public alertness to avoid destroying the confidence of its soldiers. Also, the U.S. did not do much to sensitize the public. They give a contrast to Spain which was not at war, yet its press wrote about the pandemic so that it became known as the Spanish flu. In 1917, the then California Senator Hiram Johnson made a sincere and famous observation that the first casualty when war comes is the truth. This comment was not taken lightly by the government. As a consequence, the government enacted a law that made it punishable by 20 years in jail to utter, write, print or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language concerning the government of the United States. This law suggested that one could go to jail for cursing or criticizing the government, even if what one said was