Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 by Albert Marrin (review)

For readers a century distant from the 1918 influenza crisis, "flu" signifies little more than a few days of fever, coughing, aching, and the mixed blessing of missing school. For much of the world in 1918, it meant possible death, and although there were plenty of opinions on why the epidemic struck, there was no evidence-based medical guidance on how to avoid or treat infection, much less cure it. As Marrin observes in this detailed discussion, there was, however, compelling reason to turn a blind eye to the quick spread of the devastating infection—the world was at war and it demanded soldiers, and the possibility that brutal military conditions of exhausting training and overcrowded transport were factors in the epidemic was simply ignored. Background on bacterial and viral flu, mutations, animal and human vectors, and related scourges is included, but the gripping focus is on the social toll—the panic, confusion, quackery, superstition, misplaced blame, medical frustration, and even the guilty suspicion that this was somehow punishment for waging war. Marrin rounds out coverage of this pandemic with discussion of preconditions for a future epidemic, and if readers of Murphy's An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (BCCB 6/03) suffered psychic discomfort over the possibility of massive outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease, debate over research with influenza viruses should all but guarantee sleepless nights. Period illustrations, notes, index, and an extensive bibliography are included. EB