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| Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images |
The COVID-19 pandemic has often been compared to the 1918 flu pandemic. Despite the fact that more than one hundred years have passed between the two pandemics, they share frightening similarities. For both of these pandemics, misinformation has run as rampant as the virus of each respective era and stupidity of citizens runs just as much.
On August 9th, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota kicked off. This 10 day annual event has been going on since 1938 and if you thought a deadly viral disease was gonna stop a swarm of people from attending en mass, buddy, you have not met human beings. In 2020, the rally went on as planned with thousands gathering, maskless in close proximity. To the surprise of no one, this ended up being a super spreader event because viruses love crowds.
I'd like to think we've come a long way in over one hundred years, but the sad reality of it is, people are gonna be people and this was the exact same case in 1918.
When you think of a parade, death is probably the last thing that comes to mind. But the Philadelphia Liberty Loans Parade was a parade like no other.
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| Image from Smithsonian |
Held on September 28th, 1918, the Liberty Loan Parade was the city's way of selling bonds to help with the war effort. Music, marching. A crowd of 200,000 people crammed together like a fish in a net. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a problem. But these were not normal circumstances. Despite downplaying of the flu (man, does that sound familiar) it was not gone and against urging, the parade went on and as you know, a virus never misses a chance to mingle in crowded places.
Three days later, every single bed in Philly's 31 hospitals was full of influenza patients. By the end of the week, 2,600 people were dead. A week later, that number rose to 4,500. Death came so swiftly for Philly residents that morticians could not keep up, leaving many to bury their own love ones.
In the end, Philadelphia was one of the most devastated US cities to get hit by the 1918 flu outbreak. The Liberty Loans Parade led to the death of over 12,000 Philly citizens and has since been known as the deadliest parade in US history.
During the 1918 pandemic, there was no vaccine to combat the lethal virus. In 2021, we have a vaccine, but because people are idiots that can only think of themselves, they refuse to get vaccinated, wear a mask and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is carrying on as usual even though the Delta variant is far more transmissible than any other. South Dakota is ran by a Kristi Noem, a Trump stooge. As long as she gets political points, what's a couple hundred deaths? And just like last year, the people that attend this rally will contract COVID-19, take the virus home with them and infect others.
The Liberty Loans Parade has since been viewed as a cautionary tale but throughout the COVID-19 pandemic caution has constantly been thrown out the window so people can act like fools.
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