Profiting from a pandemic is an old trick GlobeDebate
An advertisement for an elixir promised to protect against influenza, published in the Daily Gleaner newspaper in Fredericton, on Oct. 18, 1918.Jane Jenkins is an associate professor and director of science and technology studies at St. Thomas University.
Things weren’t much different on Canada’s East Coast during the 1918 influenza pandemic. When influenza swept into New Brunswick in the fall of 1918, people were already bone-weary from four years of war and it seemed incomprehensible that things could get any worse. Unfortunately, people were soon overwhelmed by fear of the invisible killer they called “the enemy in our midst” and stories that it came from a fog left by German U-boats just off Halifax seemed believable.
Isolation, boredom and overwhelming dread replaced the usual routines of life that chilly fall of 1918. And feeding on this widespread anxiety were newspaper advertisements and articles trumpeting often outlandish remedies to prevent or cure influenza by keeping the right attitude, making recipes at home, or buying ready-made items. In most cases, the path to cure and comfort led straight to the clothes and other goods for sale in shops and stores.
Once the terrible epidemic had hit, however, a flurry of newspaper articles offered advice about how to deal with it. Protection could be as easy as eating three yeast cakes a day and maintaining a regular diet with plenty of onions. Exercise was important if one kept cool while walking and warm while bicycling. Breathe through the nose, not the mouth. Home-made flu preventatives required ample quantities of iodine and turpentine.
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