One Hundred Years After Influenza Killed His Twin Brother, WWII Veteran Dies of COVID-19
by Alex Fox/Smithsonianmag.com
New Yorker and 100-year-old World War II veteran Philip Kahn died of COVID-19 on April 17, just over a century after his twin brother, Samuel, succumbed to the 1918 influenza pandemic, reports Carolyn Gusoff for CBS New York.
“My grandfather Phil and his brother were pandemic bookends,” grandson Warren Zysman tells Natalie O’Neill of the New York Post. “He knew the devastation of the first one—and he told me, ‘Warren, my boy, history repeats itself.’”
Samuel died just weeks after the brothers’ birth on December 15, 1919, according to the New York Times’ Katharine Q. Seelye. The twins’ father, a European immigrant, ran a bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
“He really didn’t know his twin brother, but it was something that really weighed very heavily on him psychologically—he held this void, this twin brother he never got to experience growing up with,” Zysman tells Megan Flynn of the Washington Post.
The 1918 influenza pandemic—which, despite its name, lasted from January 1918 to December 1920—claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people worldwide, with roughly 675,000 succumbing to the illness in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Comparatively, COVID-19 has killed more than 50,000 people….read more:
Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.
She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
