Resolved that we firmly believe in the interests of public health and safety, that all schools, theatres, churches and public places where gatherings congregate should be closed...

Those dire words sound like they could have been issued in recent days in Hamilton to try to 'social distance' people from one another and slow down the spread of COVID-19.

But the order was actually imposed more than 100 years ago by local health authorities to deal with a spreading Spanish flu outbreak in the city.

Experts say, the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic is the biggest public health care emergency since 1918 when communities around the world saw horrendous numbers of people becoming seriously ill and tens of millions dying.

"We've been through this before. This is pretty much true to form to what people went through a century ago," says historian Neil Orford, who organized a national education program for the 100th anniversary of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 2018.

In Hamilton, more than 9,000 people became ill with the Spanish flu and 500 died from October to December of 1918, during the worst of three waves of the virus. At that time the city had less than 110,000 people, a fifth of Hamilton's current population.

So, a pandemic of that force in today's city would make 45,000 people ill and kill 2,500 in the city.

But, of course, nobody can predict if the Novel Coronavirus we are facing today will reach the same magnitude. Nor do we know the extent to which modern health care - including ventilators - will be able to mitigate the death toll.

As well, precautionary measures - such as self isolation and widespread closures - will hopefully lower a surge of severely sick people so our health care system is better able to cope.

But there are eerie similarities between 2020 and 1918, in terms of how the outbreaks began and how the different generations responded.

Oct. 25, 1918 Hamilton Herald asking for flu survivors to donate blood that could be used to make a serum. | Hamilton Spectator file photo

"It's been very interesting to see how much the measures that have been put in place in 2020 are similar to what was done in 1918," says McMaster University retired anthropology professor Ann Herring, who edited the 2006 book "Anatomy of a Pandemic: The 1918 Influenza in Hamilton."

Like today, schools and theatres were shut down in 1918. Store hours were restricted, church services cancelled and public funerals prohibited.

People were told to keep a distance from one another, and to avoid kissing. And the sick were quarantined.

"A hundred years ago people were snapping up camphor (to use in an attempt to open respiratory tracts) like no one's business. Now they are buying Purell (hand sanitizer)" says Orford.

Residents generally went along with the restrictions, although when it came to church services being halted, "some people felt it was a time when people should be in their churches," says Herring.

It all began in Hamilton with a Sept. 30 1918 announcement about an outbreak at a military training facility located where the McMaster Innovation Park is now, in the city's west end.

A few days later, on Oct. 3, a 25-year-old King Street West housewife named Hatty Wirchowsky became the first civilian death. Her sister died shortly thereafter.

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Hospitals quickly filled and prominent buildings - such as Ballinahinch on James Street South, and the Jockey Club hotel at Barton and Ottawa - became makeshift infirmaries.

During the 1918 'Spanish' flu pandemic, the Martin family offered its Ballinahinch estate on James Street South for use as a relief hospital for victims. The gentlemen seen here with masked nurses and ailing patients are Cyrus Birge, left, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, and lawyer H.W. Lovering, deputy county registrar. | Hamilton Public Library Special Collections

A ban on public gatherings went into effect from Oct. 16th until early November, when it was eased to allow a massive Victory Bond parade on Nov. 2 in Gore Park.

Then, with growing cases and deaths, the ban was put back in force in late November until Dec. 18 when the main surge of the outbreak subsided. The following year it reappeared, but there were not nearly as many cases.

And while the pandemic in Hamilton - over the two years - was a horrific experience, Herring notes: "It's important to realize that the vast majority of people recovered and it was a small percentage that went on to develop serious complications depending on underlying conditions."

An additional factor in determining whether a person survived was socio-economic status, she says. McMaster research found that people who lived in poorer regions of the city had higher mortality rates.

"A study of the addresses of victims found people who lived north of King Street were more likely to die than people south of it," she said.

The finding is reminiscent of The Spectator's Code Red series which found that health risks today tend to be far worse for people who live in less affluent neighbourhoods in Hamilton.

mlmcneil13@gmail.com

@MarkFlashbacks