Echoes of that deadly event will sound on Saturday, when a performance art parade takes to the streets of Philadelphia.

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The parade kicks off “Spit Spreads Death,” a new exhibition and project by the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia opening Oct. 17. It was designed by Blast Theory, a British art collective that specializes in immersive, interactive media installations.

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The public will be a key part of the parade. People can sign up as patient representatives, marching in honor of individual flu victims who died in Philadelphia on the pandemic’s deadliest day. During the world premiere of choral music composed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang and sung by the Crossing, a Grammy-winning Philadelphia choir, the names of all 751 of those victims will be called out.

As the music plays from participants’ cellphones, each patient representative will pass alone between two illuminated, 20-foot-long floats in a moment of commemoration.

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The grim spectacle has a purpose: to reflect on historic losses and an all-too-modern health crisis. According to the CDC, 49 million people in the United States were infected with influenza in 2018 alone. About 79,000 of those people died. The CDC estimates that 80 percent of flu-associated deaths in children occurred among children who had not been vaccinated.

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At the end of the parade route at Dilworth Park there will be a free event featuring public health information, food and comment from the artists. Free flu shots also will be available.