The mask wars of the 1918 flu pandemic

[Shiloh]

Source: https://crosscut.com/2020/07/mask-wars-1918-flu-pandemic

The mask wars of the 1918 flu pandemic
Face coverings helped flatten the curve during the Spanish flu. But as with coronavirus today, they couldn't muzzle dissent.
by Knute Berger
July 17, 2020

The mask zeitgeist has shifted, now that President Donald Trump wore one in public. He said on July 1 that he thought it made him look like the Lone Ranger, even though that Western icon wore a mask across his eyes rather than over his mouth and nose — that was for bad guys. Critics have zeroed in on Trump’s Johnny-mask-lately conversion, wondering how many lives might have been saved had he embraced his inner Lone Ranger earlier.

Nevertheless, the topic of masks and wearing them is still hotly debated, often in retail chains as iPhone cameras roll. These videos have prompted questions: Was there resistance to masks during the 1918 pandemic? Did they work? How was mask wearing enforced in the old days?

Quick answers: Yes, there was resistance and defiance, masks worked to limit or stall the spread of disease, and mask-wearing was sometimes enforced with fines, arrests, jail time and, in at least one case, gunfire.

After scouring press coverage on the West Coast during the 1918 flu era, I can say resistance to adopting masks was not universal, but it also was not uncommon. In Seattle, during the influenza’s lockdown period in October and November of 1918, people without masks were banned from public transit and ticketed or fined by members of the police's masked “Flu Squad.” Headlines had a somewhat negative spin: “Thousands Are Hit with Flu Mask Order,” shouted one in the Seattle Star...

 

[gsgs]

I'm not aware of analysis that masks worked in 1918.
E.g. from "the great influenza" I recall they were useless. San Francisco was so proud of them
but then they were badly hit in wave 3, in total worse than Los Angeles

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I found this :



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291356/

Moreover, we could not locate
any consistent, reliable data supporting the conclusion that

face masks, as available and as worn during the
1918–1920 influenza pandemic, conferred any protection


to the populations that wore them (16).

16. Kellogg WH. Influenza: a study of measures adopted for the control
of the epidemic. California State Board of Health, Special bulletin no.
31. Sacramento (CA): California State Printing Office; 1919.

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they had "gauze masks"

18San Diego Union, October 18-19, 1918. The California Board of Health later concluded
that "the majority of the masks furnished by the Red Cross (in California), which
probably made up the bulk of those used, were undeniably too light and coarse in texture
to do more than afford a comfortable feeling of safety on the part of the wearer." See
Kellogg, Influenza, p. 13.

 

[Emily]

Gsgs, here's a good one - https://www.jstor.org/stable/41859568
Luckingham, Bradford. “TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK: A Note on the 1918 Spanish Influenza Epidemic in Tucson.” The Journal of Arizona History, vol. 25, no. 2, 1984, pp. 191–204. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41859568. Accessed 18 July 2020.

Quite interesting, especially about the strict mask judge fining the heck out of people even if a medical problem made wearing a mask over the nose a problem. Karma paid the judge back when he put his head through a window because his own mask fogged up his glasses. The judge ultimately found the mask ordinance to be unconstitutional since school childern were exempt and that made the law discriminatory.

You can get a free JSTOR account with an email address to read this. It is true that in the long run masks did not seem to work and made the second wave even worse in cities that were masked during the first wave. The masks were gauze as you point out. I read about an improved gauze mask that was used by nurses during the TB era. The old masks were 3 layers of gauze and the new design had a triangle of gauze that was 6 layers that coverd the mouth and nose. They thought that was more effective.
At least as far as the public noticed, the 1918 pandemic was over quickly. But that was a more 'naturally' emerged virus. This one could be different.