Like COVID-19, the 1918 influenza pandemic hit hard and fast, going from a handful of reported cases in a few cities to a nationwide outbreak within a few weeks. Many communities issued several rounds of various closure orders – corresponding to the ebbs and flows of their epidemics – in an attempt to keep the disease in check.

These social-distancing orders worked to reduce cases and deaths. Just as today, however, they often proved difficult to maintain. By the late autumn, just weeks after the social-distancing orders went into effect, the pandemic seemed to be coming to an end as the number of new infections declined.

People clamored to return to their normal lives. Businesses pressed officials to be allowed to reopen. Believing the pandemic was over, state and local authorities began rescinding public health edicts. The nation turned its efforts to addressing the devastation influenza had wrought.

For the friends, families and co-workers of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who had died, post-pandemic life was filled with sadness and grief. Many of those still recovering from their bouts with the malady required support and care as they recuperated.

At a time when there was no federal or state safety net, charitable organizations sprang into action to provide resources for families who had lost their breadwinners, or to take in the countless children left orphaned by the disease.

For the vast majority of Americans, though, life after the pandemic seemed to be a headlong rush to normalcy. Starved for weeks of their nights on the town, sporting events, religious services, classroom interactions and family gatherings, many were eager to return to their old lives.

Taking their cues from officials who had – somewhat prematurely – declared an end to the pandemic, Americans overwhelmingly hurried to return to their pre-pandemic routines. They packed into movie theaters and dance halls, crowded in stores and shops, and gathered with friends and family.

Officials had warned the nation that cases and deaths likely would continue for months to come. The burden of public health, however, now rested not on policy but rather on individual responsibility.

Predictably, the pandemic wore on, stretching into a third deadly wave that lasted through the spring of 1919, with a fourth wave hitting in the winter of 1920. Some officials blamed the resurgence on careless Americans. Others downplayed the new cases or turned their attention to more routine public health matters, including other diseases, restaurant inspections and sanitation.

Despite the persistence of the pandemic, influenza quickly became old news. Once a regular feature of front pages, reportage rapidly dwindled to small, sporadic clippings buried in the backs of the nation’s newspapers. The nation carried on, inured to the toll the pandemic had taken and the deaths yet to come. People were largely unwilling to return to socially and economically disruptive public health measures.

No matter the era, aspects of daily life go on even during a pandemic.

Excerpt from article by J. Alexander Navarro, republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

In 1918, there were no vaccines to help prevent flu infection. Available tools to control the spread of flu were largely limited to interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limits on public gatherings, which were used in many cities, including Austin. City residents were advised to avoid crowds and instructed to pay particular attention to personal hygiene. Many physicians and nurses were instructed to wear gauze masks when with flu patients.

Those public health measures were called “non-pharmaceutical interventions” during the 1918 influenza pandemic, estimated to have killed about 675,000 people in the U.S. and about 50 million around the world.  Were such measures successful? Social distancing did not cure the disease and did not prevent it. Mortality was still appalling, but it would have been worse if not for public health measures.

In response, states and cities across the country told people to do what we now know as social distancing. Schools, restaurants, and businesses were closed. Public gatherings were banned. People were told to isolate and quarantine. In some places, this lasted for months.

It worked. Things didn’t go perfectly — far from it, as some cities fared much worse than others, and people didn’t always obey what experts and officials were telling them. But studies show that the social distancing efforts helped slow the spread of the 1918 flu and reduce the mortality rate overall.

Even as COVID-19 vaccines were being rolled out across the country, experts still advised social distancing, along with wearing masks and avoiding gatherings, to stem the spread of the disease. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, urged people to continue wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines even after getting vaccinated. Vaccines are not a “substitution for public health measures,” Fauci said, but “a complement to public health measures.”

Community and local government came together like never before in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. From county-sponsored community support programs such as business grants, rent assistance, and evictions protections, to community members volunteering at vaccination clinics, the people of Travis County worked together to support each other through difficult times. Travis County responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in a variety of innovative ways, including conducting the first virtual criminal jury trial in the country, hosting vaccine distribution events throughout the county, and organizing one of the largest drive-thru vaccine clinics in the country.

re·sil·ience /rəˈzilyəns/ noun
the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness