Deja Vu All Over Again: Pandemic of 2018

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An aircraft hull travels the parade route in Philadelphia (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph)

Health Editor’s Note: Much of this story will be very familiar to the reader as we are living through another pandemic…..Carol

Philadelphia Threw a WWI Parade That Gave Thousands of Onlookers the Flu

by Kenneth C. Davis/Smithsonianmag.com  September 21, 2018

It was a parade like none Philadelphia had ever seen.



In the summer of 1918, as the Great War raged and American doughboys fell on Europe’s killing fields, the City of Brotherly Love organized a grand spectacle. To bolster morale and support the war effort, a procession for the ages brought together marching bands, Boy Scouts, women’s auxiliaries, and uniformed troops to promote Liberty Loans –government bonds issued to pay for the war. The day would be capped off with a concert led by the “March King” himself –John Philip Sousa.

When the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive parade stepped off on September 28, some 200,000 people jammed Broad Street, cheering wildly as the line of marchers stretched for two miles. Floats showcased the latest addition to America’s arsenal – floating biplanes built in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard. Brassy tunes filled the air along a route where spectators were crushed together like sardines in a can. Each time the music stopped, bond salesmen singled out war widows in the crowd, a move designed to evoke sympathy and ensure that Philadelphia met its Liberty Loan quota.

But aggressive Liberty Loan hawkers were far from the greatest threat that day. Lurking among the multitudes was an invisible peril …read more:

 

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