GRIT Newspaper 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

Newspaper coverage of obituaries, hospitals, medical tent cities, and ads selling “proven” cures.

By 1918 Grit Archives
Published on April 29, 2020
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by GRIT Archives
These clippings from October, 1918 describe how influenza was once again taking the lives of healthy, young soldiers in local military encampments, much like it did when the flu first appeared at Ft. Riley, Kansas, the previous spring.

From our archives, here’s how GRIT covered the 1918-19 influenza pandemic when it was a rural newspaper based in Williamsport, Pa.

From the spring of 1918 through the fall of 1919, the “Spanish Flu” infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killed at least 50 million – 675,000 in the United States – according to the Centers for Disease Control. Without accurate records, the precise number of fatalities is unknown.

With this many deaths, one would assume the news of the day – including the weekly GRIT newspaper – would be full of reports, warnings, and updates on spread. But during the first wave of the disease, which first gained national attention in the United States after military personnel on bases in Kansas began getting sick in the spring of 1918, people seemed to be more focused on the end of World War I and the prospects of prohibition. That began to change by the fall of 1918 when the flu made its deadly reappearance.

This second wave, which lasted until May 1919, would prove to be even deadlier than the first wave. As one reads in this snapshot of GRIT coverage from October-November 1918, we see how that pandemic was beginning to affect every aspect of life in the country back then, much as the coronavirus pandemic is affecting every part of ours today.

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