Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheiro
During the Great Flu of 1918, there was no such thing as social distancing or even a vaccine. So, the disease was free to infect virtually everyone in the world and everyone got sick. ...
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One of the history lessons used to support the use of social distancing, in fact, was the success of social distancing in the 1918 flu. While the organism causing that pandemic was not identified, it was apparent that it spread from person to person especially in closed spaces. You might click any of the hits on this
spanish flu social distancing - Google Search
One dramatic example comes from Philadelphia where it was decided to hold a patriotic parade whereas for example St. Louis cancelled their parade.
National Geographic did a nice job explaining how social distancing seems to have help during 1918 including graphs showing at least in some cities how relaxing the rules too soon may have led to an upturn in new cases. I did scratch my head a bit at one sentence " This allowed time for vaccine development and lessened the strain on health care systems" The first flu vaccine was experimentally available
in the late 1930's. I'm not sure helped anyone in the 1918 pandemic.