I am pleased that Delaware Humanities has selected a timely new program I have been researching about the pandemic of 1918 in the region. The goal of this program is to understand how the experience of 1918, a situation that called for drastic action, unfolded and use this examination in a discussion that connects the past with today.
TITLE
We Have Been Here Before: Delmarva During the 1918 Pandemic
DESCRIPTION
With the nation currently struggling with an unprecedented public health emergency as the coronavirus impacts the nation, this program examines the impact of the so-called Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 on Delmarva and nearby points. The virus took a grim toll in this region, and it overwhelmed the health care system, forcing the region to shut down for an extended period. Although they didn’t call it social distancing at the top of the twentieth century, the methods they used to quarantine the contagion are similar to what we practice today. Thus, as the world struggles with this novel contagion, we will take a relevant look at the past to see how people in the region 102-years ago managed a similar situation, at a time when medical science did not have a treatment for the pathogen.
A Delaware Humanities speakers bureau program.
