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WearAMask

WEAR A MASK OR GO TO JAIL

In an effort to curb the spread of Spanish Flu in 1918, some states in the US quarantined citizens; others made the wearing of face masks mandatory, at the same time as shutting down “all places of amusement”. According to a law passed in San Francisco in October of that year, on the day that state-wide infections passed 50,000, anyone seen not wearing a gauze face covering was subject to fines that ranged from $5 to $100 and the possibility of 10 days’ imprisonment.
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During World War 1, reporting of the Spanish Flu was largely supressed in order to maintain morale amongst the troops. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship. As a result, the media was free to report on it and coverage of the virus only increased when King Alfonso XIII came down with a nasty case. The Allies only read in depth accounts from Spanish sources and so they naturally assumed the country was ground zero for the pandemic.

RUDOLF DETHU

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