Very, Very, Very Dreadful Quotes

“No other disease, no war, no natural disaster, no famine comes close to the great pandemic. In the space of eighteen months in 1918–1919, about 500 million people, one-third of the human race at the time, came down with influenza. The exact total of lives lost will never be known. An early estimate, made in 1920, claimed 21.5 million died worldwide. Since then, researchers have been continually raising the number as they find new information. Today, the best estimate of flu deaths in 1918–1919 is between 50 million and 100 million worldwide, and probably closer to the latter figure. 7”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Throughout the pandemic, the nation lacked a uniform policy about gathering places, and there was no central authority with the power to make and enforce rules that everyone had to obey. Each community acted on its own, doing as its elected officials thought best.12”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“When the next pandemic comes, as it surely will someday, perhaps we will be ready to meet it. If we are not, the outcome will be very, very, very dreadful.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Edward Jenner’s discovery of vaccination drew harsh criticism from the pulpit. Clergymen denounced the doctor for having put himself above God. Only the Almighty, they said, sends illness and only the Almighty cures it. Vaccination, critics charged, was “a diabolical operation,” and its inventor was “flying in the face of Providence”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“White Christians often explained the disaster in a time-honored way: it was God's punishment of humanity for its sings. To the seven deadly sins--anger, greed, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony--they added an eighth sin: 'worshiping science.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“In the United States, influenza death rates were so high that the average life span fell by twelve years, from fifty-one in 1917 to thirty-nine in 1918. If you were a “doughboy”—slang for an American soldier—you had a better chance of dying in bed from flu or flu-related complications than from enemy action.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Flu pandemics are nothing new. Medical historians think the first one struck in 1510, infecting Asia, Africa, Europe, and the New World. Between the years 1700 and 1900, there were at least sixteen pandemics, some of them killing up to one million people. Yet these were tame compared to the 1918 calamity. It was by far the worst thing that has ever happened to humankind; not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages comes close in the number of lives it took. A 1994 report by the World Health Organization pulled no punches. The 1918 pandemic, it said, “killed more people in less time than any other disease before or since.” It was the “most deadly disease event in the history of humanity.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Today, we share no fewer than 300 diseases with domesticated animals. For example, humans get 45 diseases from cattle, including tuberculosis; 46 from sheep and goats; 42 from pigs; 35 from horses, including the common cold; and 26 from poultry. Rats and mice carry 33 diseases to humans, including bubonic plague. Sixty-five diseases, including measles, originated in man’s best friend, the dog. We can still get parasitic worms from pet dogs and cats. That is why it is not a good idea to kiss a pet on the mouth or sleep with it in bed.4”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“For propagandists, whatever promoted the Allied cause was true, whether factual or not. What counted was the noble end--victory--not the sordid means of achieving it. 'Truth and falsehood are arbitrary terms,' declared a CPI official. 'There is nothing in experience to tell us that one is always preferable to the other....There are lifeless truths and vital lies....The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Nowadays, the disease claims, on average, 36,000 Americans each year, out of a population of 320 million. Contrast this with another number: 35,092 Americans died in motor vehicle accidents in 2015.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“A pandemic would have a cascading effect. Always eager for a sensational story, the media - particularly television - would spread panic. The labor force - because of sickness, fear, or having to tend to sick family members would not report for work. Soon, the economy would come to a standstill as industries shut down, businesses closed, and unemployment soared. Growing shortages of vital goods, from food to fuel to medical supplies would bring chaos. Government would cease to function. Hospitals, mortuaries, and cemeteries would overflow as in 1918, only more so. Taken by surprise, drug companies would not have the time or healthy scientific personnel to develop a new generation of vaccines.”
― Albert Marrin (Author), Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“most deadly disease event in the history of humanity.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“For young survivors of the pandemic, life would never be the same. Like shell shocked soldiers, they bore emotional scars. These children had similar experiences and shared similar feelings of anxiety, of terror, of despair.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Influenza robbed countless youngsters of normal childhoods. For them, attending school had been a regular part of life. The pandemic, however, forced local authorities to decide whether to keep public schools open.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“A Journal of the Plague Year”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Another Colorado town, Ouray, in the San Juan Mountains, went further. Ouray’s sheriff hired guards to enforce a “shotgun” quarantine against outsiders. No matter: influenza got in anyway, infecting 150 townspeople. St. Louis, Missouri, barred soldiers and sailors on leave from entering the city.15”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Helping other did wonders for volunteer's self-esteem. Why, if women showed such dedication and courage in this crisis, they could do anything - even vote in election!. Opponents argued that "the ladies" should not have the right to vote because they were too unstable, too emotional, too "fragile" to make important decisions without male guidance. Women's activities during the pandemic helped change minds. Thus, it was no accident that, in August 1920, most states approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitutions, which granted women to right to vote." ~ Very, Very, Very Dreadful Albert Marrin”
― Albert Marrin , Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918