Pandemics are certainly nothing new. Today’s headlines shout warnings about the spread of the Coronavirus, COVID19, preventative measures to take, and the count of those who have tested positive and those who have died to date. Just over a century ago, the world faced another pandemic, the 1918 influenza pandemic, the deadliest disease outbreak in history to date.

More than 50 million people worldwide died as a result of influenza, sometimes referred to as the Spanish flu, during the 1918 influenza pandemic. An estimated 675,000 of those deaths were in the United States.
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Over half a billion people in the world were said to have contacted influenza in 1918, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 1918 pandemic also hit Missouri hard, especially St. Louis and Kansas City.
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The above photo is of the makeshift hospital caring for those from Camp Funston who had fallen ill.
The first wave of the influenza epidemic began, according to historians, just over 100 miles from Missouri at Camp Funston in Kansas in March 1918, with thousands of soldiers falling sick and 38 dying.
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Some people — like these Canadians — tried to avoid catching influenza by wearing masks.
Historians believe that influenza first arrived at the military bases in Missouri, in October of 1918, then spread throughout the state from there. October was, in fact, the deadliest month in Missouri and in the United States.
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A victim’s body is taken away by the Red Cross in St. Louis.
Throughout the United States, nearly 200,000 Americans died in October 1918. Missourians faced a shortage of doctors, with an estimated 50 percent serving in World War I. The shortage of nurses was even greater.
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Patients at Walter Reed are cared for by a nurse wearing a mask.

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Columbia’s hospital couldn’t hold all of the sick Missourians, so makeshift hospitals were opened in such places as Welch Military Academy and Athens Hotel.
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Makeshift hospitals were commonplace in the United States in 1918. This photo is said to be a hospital in either Long Island or in Arkansas.
The impact of the influenza pandemic was felt all over the state. School districts were closed. Medical schools graduated doctors early, so they could get to work. Families were quarantined in their homes.
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Victims of the Spanish flu in Canada are at their final resting place.
The Spanish flu arrived in three waves — the spring of 1918, the fall of 1918, and the winter of 1918.
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The above graphic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the three waves of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.
All told, thousands of Missourians died during the pandemic.
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Even after the influenza pandemic had ended, Missouri faced a long list of struggles — from dealing with children orphaned after having lost their parents to the flu to some survivors developing a form of Parkinson’s disease.
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Nurses in Washington DC during the pandemic.

Are you concerned about the possibility of another influenza pandemic in Missouri? Join the conversation in the comments! Since we’re talking about history today, do you know the history of Trail of Tears State Park in Jackson, Missouri?

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