As of this writing, the so-called Wuhan Coronavirus (officially designated COVID-19) has infected more than 82,000 people, claiming 2,810 lives. The latest warnings from authorities suggest that the virus will continue to spread, and as expected, the world has responded by exhausting basic protective supplies in some regions, such as masks and alcohol. Now many are wondering what people did to face larger pandemics in the past, and judging by this gallery of photographs taken during the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak... well, exactly the same.
The famous name "Spanish Flu" was nothing more than a product of censorship. The first cases emerged in January 1918. World War I still had ten months to go, and in an attempt to maintain morale, the media in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States downplayed reports of the disease. However, this was not the case in Spain. The country was neutral, and King Alfonso XIII himself fell ill, leading many to interpret that Spain was suffering the worst of the pandemic.
Nothing could be further from the truth. During its two years of "presence," the disease infected 27 percent of the human population (1.8–1.9 billion in 1918). Most sources suggest that between 40 and 50 million people died, with reports mentioning much higher numbers. That complicates the calculation of the real mortality rate, but despite the dual threat of war and pandemic, the world kept spinning, and people took to the streets with all kinds of masks, protecting mouths, noses, or both at once...
Source: Design You Trust
Gallery: Masks during the 1918 pandemic
