Letter to the editor: Reminder of seriousness of epidemics

Thank you for the timely “Remember When” article, hearkening back to the time of the Spanish Flu in Thompson Falls. With all the reference to unprecedented, it is helpful to realize that there is precedent, and the measures required then are pretty much exactly what we are being asked now.

After reading the article, I went back to read a bit more about the Spanish Flu, and was struck by the fact that its spread was also the result of globalization – albeit the globalization of war. The term Spanish Flu had always carried with it, at least for me, the idea that it came to the U.S. from Europe, but it turns out it most likely spread to Europe from our soldiers, with the first reports coming from Kansas, and the illness spreading through military training bases and on to Europe with those troops. If they’d known, we’d perhaps be remembering the Kansas Flu pandemic.

Seems the biggest difference is the speed we travel today, and perhaps our loss of institutional memory about the seriousness of epidemics.

Thank you again for the reminder.

Pat Crowder,

Thompson Falls