New York City also built over 6000 miles of sewer to take away and treat waste, which protects the drinking water. In the late 19th century through the early 20th century, New York built an extraordinary system to bring clean water to the city from the Catskills, a system still in use today. I will use New York as an example to discuss three major changes to society which occurred in NY during that time and their impact on mortality from infectious diseases. Why is What Happened 100 Years Ago Important Now?īetween 1900-1920, there were enormous efforts underway in the industrialized world to build a better society. In fact, influenza is from the Medieval Latin “influential” in an astrological sense, meaning a visitation under the influence of the stars. It meant some mystery disease which dropped out of the sky. It didn’t carry the specific meaning it does today. In 1918, “influenza” or flu was a catchall term for disease of unknown origin. I suspect many American families, and many families worldwide, were impacted in similar ways by the mysterious Spanish Flu. All of the family members who died lived in New York City. On my mother’s side, two of her father’s sisters died in childhood. Sadie’s sister Marian also joined the Navy. Her death left my grandmother Rosemary and her sister Anita to be raised by their aunt. On my father’s side, his grandmother Sadie Hoyt died from pneumonia in 1918. Among those killed by disease in 1918-19 are members of both of my parents’ families. I have a personal connection to the Spanish Flu. Many people do not realize that disease killed far more soldiers on all sides than machine guns or mustard gas or anything else typically associated with WWI. When WW1 ended on November 11, 1918, soldiers returned to their home countries and colonial outposts, spreading the killer bacterial pneumonia worldwide.ĭuring WW1, the Rockefeller Institute also sent its experimental anti-meningococcal serum to England, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries, helping spread the epidemic worldwide.ĭuring the pandemic of 1918-19, the so-called “Spanish Flu” killed 50-100 million people, including many soldiers. Flu attacks the young, old and immunocompromised. Bacterial pneumonia attacks people in their prime. The “Spanish Flu” attacked healthy people in their prime. One study describes soldiers “with active infections (who) were aerosolizing the bacteria that colonized their noses and throats, while others-often, in the same “breathing spaces”-were profoundly susceptible to invasion of and rapid spread through their lungs by their own or others’ colonizing bacteria.” (1) The first cases of bacterial pneumonia in 1918 trace back to military bases, the first one in Fort Riley, Kansas.įrom January 21 – June 4, 1918, an experimental bacterial meningitis vaccine cultured in horses by the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York was injected into soldiers at Fort Riley.ĭuring the remainder of 1918 as those soldiers – often living and traveling under poor sanitary conditions – were sent to Europe to fight, they spread bacteria at every stop between Kansas and the frontline trenches in France. “According to a 2008 National Institute of Health paper, bacterial pneumonia was the killer in a minimum of 92.7 (or higher) of the deaths were caused by bacterial pneumonia, not an influenza virus.
“The crude anti-bacterial vaccine used in the Fort Riley experiment on soldiers was made in horses.” “The Rockefeller Institute and its experimental bacterial meningococcal vaccine, contrary to the accepted mythology may have killed 50-100 million people in 1918-1919.”
“During WW1, the Rockefeller Institute also sent its experimental anti-meningococcal serum to England, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries, helping spread the epidemic worldwide.” The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research took advantage of this new pool of human guinea pigs to conduct vaccine experiments.” “During the war years 1918-19, the US Army ballooned to 6,000,000 men, with 2,000,000 men being sent overseas. The 1918-19 bacterial vaccine experiment may have killed 50-100 million people. It Started with the Rockefeller Institute’s Crude Bacterial Meningitis Vaccination Experiment on US Troops. The Truth About the 1918 ‘Viral Influenza’ Pandemic