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0 pointsSpicyLemonZest6y ago0 comments

No city I'm aware of enacted a severe lockdown by our standards during the Spanish Flu. I haven't seen any record of a ban on private gatherings, or a general shutdown of non-essential businesses (as opposed to a targeted ban of bars and restaurants).

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4 comments · 2 top-level

Spooky236y ago· 2 in thread

Keep reading.

Here’s my city. https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-albany.html#

NYC didn’t shut down, but had an active surveillance program to monitor the situation and act. That’s one of the real tragedies of the complete failure of the federal government. Their ineptitude will kill thousands and impoverish millions.

SpicyLemonZestOP6y ago

This looks consistent with what I said. The city shut schools, libraries, everywhere that involved indoor public gatherings, but I'm not seeing anything here about bans on private gatherings or general orders to not leave your house.

simonh6y ago

Spanish Flu and Covid-19 seem comparably lethal. The flu killed 600,000 Americans out of a much lower population and incapacitated many millions more due to illness, plus those caring for them. All of that even with a basic lockdown would cause economic mayhem anyway. There is no magical choice which leads to an un impacted economy. Those cities that did the least suffered the worst anyway, because there is no option to ‘choose the economy’. That’s the real lesson of the Spanish Flu.

aksss6y ago

And more people did die as a consequence. I’m not being smart, maybe that was the better option compared to what we’re doing now, all things considered. We may be at or close to exemplifying the idiom of “cutting our nose to spite our face”.

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