“Nonpharmaceutical Interventions Implemented by US Cities During the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic” was published in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association in August 2007. “The Influenza pandemic of 1918–19 was the most deadly contagious calamity in human history,” the paper begins. “We found no example of a city that had a second peak of influenza while the first set of nonpharmaceutical interventions were still in effect.” When the measures were withdrawn, “death rates increased.” October 1918 remains the most mortal month in American history.
