STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 killed upwards of 50 million people worldwide, including 600,000 in the United States.

And just like we've seen during this year's coronavirus pandemic, Staten Island bickered with City Hall as the 1918 outbreak tore through New York City, according to an online encyclopedia of the influenza epidemic compiled by the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine.

While the borough has called for more health resources to be sent to the borough this year, the concerns in 1918 were far different.

U.S. National Archives photo

As the Spanish influenza pandemic came in a deadly wave in the fall of 1918, in the waning months of World War I, Dr. Royal S. Copeland, commissioner of the city Health Department, worked to stem the spread of the disease.

He said that homes with cases of influenza would be quarantined, while flu sufferers from the city’s tenements were isolated in city hospitals. As with today, some hospitals became overwhelmed with flu cases.

But instead of closing city schools, Copeland said that schools should send home children who were sneezing or coughing in class. School doctors examined children each day. Classes were kept separate from each other, and students were told to return straight home following school.

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In an echo of comments that Mayor Bill de Blasio made when considering whether to close city schools last month, Copeland said, “I believe that the children are better protected in the schools than they would be in the streets.”

The city school system would stay open throughout the epidemic.

But in a marked departure with how we’ve handled coronavirus in 2020, Copeland decided against closing businesses and entertainment venues like theaters.

And that’s what put Staten Island Borough President Calvin Decker Van Name on a collision course with Copeland and Mayor John F. Hylan.

Working with business leaders, the Health Department put in place a staggered schedule for all stores, except those selling food and drugs, in a bid to reduce congestion on mass transit.

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U.S. National Archives photo

Opening and closing times were staggered in 15-minute increments. Businesses that opened before 8 a.m. or closed after 6 p.m. were not affected.

In order to spread out evening crowds at entertainment venues, each of the city’s 46 theaters and movie houses was assigned a specific opening time between 7 and 9 p.m.

Even though Copeland believed that dirty and crowded theaters were contributing to the spread of the flu, he said the venues would be allowed to remain open as long as they were well ventilated, clean, and did not allow patrons to cough, sneeze or smoke.

Copeland was more concerned about the flu's ability to spread on mass transit.

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The Health Department closed several theaters that did not meet the criteria. Other venues closed due to flu-driven low attendance.

But as things continued to grow worse – on October 19, more than 4,800 new cases were reported in the city, Van Name and others demanded action.

With shipbuilding companies reporting a 40 per cent drop in productivity because sick employees could not report to work, Van Name want Hylan to order Copeland to close Staten Island theaters, saloons, and other places of amusement.

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U.S. National Archives photo

A few days later, the deputy police commissioner asked Copeland to close movie houses and dance halls on Staten Island, even though business interests were opposed to such a move.

Hylan refused to intervene, according to the Michigan research, which relied on the public archives of New York and other cities.

“Dr. Copeland has been placed in charge of the Health Department,” he wrote to Van Name, “and I will not interfere with him at the behest of a former incumbent of the office who is attempting to take advantage of a very grave and serious condition that is a menace to the public health to advertise himself and to encumber the work that Dr. Copeland is seeking to accomplish.”

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U.S. National Archives photo

Copeland took a more conciliatory tack with Van Name, a Democrat who was the first native Staten Islander to serve a borough president.

Citing death rates from Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia – all cities that had enacted closure orders – Copeland wrote Van Name that New York City had better weathered the epidemic.

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U.S. National Archives photo

He said that his department had closely monitored Staten Island’s epidemic and had worked to procure hospital beds, nursing care, and other resources.

“It is my judgment that when the history of the influenza epidemic in America is written,” he wrote, “as an official of the City of New York you will not be ashamed of the chapter devoted to the care of this metropolis.”

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U.S. National Archives photo

But Copeland did close several movie houses and dance halls on the Island for failing to maintain proper ventilation and sanitary conditions.

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And boosting local control, each borough’s assistant sanitary superintendent received the authority to close public places where food and drink were handled if those places were found to be in an unsanitary condition.

Coughing and sneezing without covering your nose or mouth also became a misdemeanor.

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The flu eventually subsided, but about 30,000 New Yorkers lost their lives before it was all over.

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Copeland, seen here at left in 1934, got credit for deftly handling the epidemic here.

He was later elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.

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Hylan served as mayor of New York City until 1925.

It was under Hylan that a subway tunnel meant to link Staten Island to Brooklyn was begun, but soon abandoned.

Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island is named after him.

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Staten Island Historical Society

Van Name was borough president until 1921.

In addition to the flu epidemic, Van Name also saw the city open a garbage facility near Fresh Kills Creek, in 1917. It inspired one of the first secession movements in the borough's history.

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U.S. National Archives photos