How the Great Spanish Cold Pandemic sheds light on sports’ careful response to the coronavirus

Babe Ruth I was sick. His temperature was too high, too high, his limbs were hurt. He had a fever and a sore throat. The next day, when he pitched to the Boston Red Sox, he was ghostly pale.

This was not a typical illness. Team Doctor, as Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith mentioned in their book War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America Behind the Great WarAt a glance, Ruth advised me to spend the next few days at home.

That’s what he did. But first the doctor wiped his throat with a solution of silver nitrate. This is a procedure that can cause some nasty side effects. As a result of the treatment, Ruth fell at home and was taken to the hospital. Rumors spread that he was approaching death, saying that one of the most talented young players of baseball in the generation may not be able to make one. There were significant concerns throughout Massachusetts.

But Ruth passed through. Within a few weeks he returned to the field and the illness was behind him. Reported that he had Boston Herald and Tribune, Had a particularly troublesome case of tonsillitis.

This was May 1918, just before the end of World War I. In the United States, baseball was used to divert attention. This is a kind of military flight. A series of exhibition games took place, and later that year the World Series between Ruth’s Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs proceeded as planned.

In September I didn’t have any real worries. People were sick, but no one noticed anything unusual. America was the epicenter of a deadly pandemic when it happened: Spanish cold It has been expanding unchecked since January 1918. Even so, baseball had to continue.

Then Ruth became ill again.

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The flu outbreak spread worldwide at an alarming rate. In the final year of World War I, the first case of this unknown disease was recorded at an Army camp in Funston, Kansas.

The disease rapidly spread and spread as troops were transported across Europe and across the Atlantic. France’s cramped trenches were the breeding grounds for a mutated virus by the fall of 1918.

It became more deadly and hit young people in particular. And the timing would not have been worse. Brutal battles across Europe have led to overcrowding of medical camps and hospitals, poor hygiene, and lack of sanitation.

The first case of the virus was recorded in Fort Riley, a Kansas military camp, but soon became known as the Spanish flu. It spread from France to Spain in November 1918, meaning that the neutrality of the war was neutral, and newspapers were free to report on the effects of the virus. This gave the impression that Spain was particularly badly hit.

But in reality, much of the world was badly hit. By the end of the pandemic, the estimated total death toll ranged from 20 to 50 million. In the United States alone, more than 675,000 people have been killed.

Inevitably, the severity of the illness affected the sport by the earthquake. Like a novel Coronavirus Over a century later, the league was put to a halt, events were postponed, and the lives of sportsmen and sportswomen were never gone.

But the true cost was not immediately apparent. “The world is at risk of a huge global conflict, and the Spanish flu seemed just another frustration at the time,” author Catherine Arnold said. Pandemic 1918,say Independent. “They were used to kill the flu at the time, but it didn’t really happen until then.”

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Babe Ruth was a fighter. He was not called a colossus. The Massachusetts General Hospital was celebrating his “vigor and fine physical condition” when he was hospitalized for the first attack of a Spanish cold. Then, after leading Red Sox to the World Series title, he caught it again.

Ruth returned to his home in Baltimore, but others were not so lucky. In Canada, there were several newspaper reports detailing the deaths of local sportsmen. Among them was Charlie Swain, a baseball player “known for long-distance hits.” He died “from pneumonia following the Spanish flu attack,” a local newspaper said. He was just 33 years old.

Famous hockey player S.H ‘Hamby’ Shore also died of this disease. And in Vancouver, boxer Tommy Burns was hospitalized “in the most atrocious way” by the Spanish flu.

Responses to pandemics varied by country. Information wasn’t as widely available as it is today, so some sporting events went on regardless. Thousands of fans gathered at Fenway Park in the 1918 World Series, and 4,800 died in Boston by the end of the year. The large crowd-as the study has revealed-in the case of Covid-19-was a catalyst for the spread of the Spanish cold.

“If the World Series was scheduled in October as it was in the past, Red Sox couldn’t have been scheduled at Fenway Park,” said Warfever co-author Smith. Independent. “In Boston, cases of civil flu expanded rapidly in October, and by then the city had issued a closure order.”

In Britain, the impact on sports would have been much greater if football had not been interrupted after the war. Both the Football League and the FA Cup were canceled indefinitely in 1914. Throughout Europe, the league was destroyed by battle.

However, regional leagues were still established throughout the country. The stadium was full and football was largely unhindered by the spread of the Spanish flu. Very little was known about how the virus moved from person to person, so no extreme government action was taken.

“The main aspect of the Spanish flu was silence,” Arnold says. “People didn’t want to talk about it. For men, it was a heroic way to die.”

Inevitably, it sacrificed the lives of several football players: Outside Rights Playing at Chelsea, Angus Douglas died just 29 years old. Others got sick, but recovered-Chelsea’s Tom Logan and Harry Ford among others. In the UK, 228,000 people died by the end.

On the other hand, Ireland’s measures are getting a bit more severe. Schools and libraries were closed and large gatherings, including sporting events, were completely banned.

But there was no global stoppage in sports. Like the response to the spread of Covid-19. And the continuation of some big events, such as the World Series and the 1919 Stanley Cup, has definitely contributed to the spread of the Spanish flu.

Since then, there have been many changes. Sports 100 years from now are completely stagnant. Eventually, the vibrant immersive sensation of the original will return.

But lessons have been learned from the past. There is no rush to return for everyone involved. For sports fans, for sportsmen and sportswomen, the pitch can wait. The ring can wait. The court can wait. Sports will be resumed soon.

As Babe Ruth once said, “Every strike brings me closer to my next home run.”