bjgreen
(Image: Library of Congress)
By Besty J. Green
Although recent historians think that the 1918 flu pandemic started in the United States, back in 1918 it was blamed on the Europeans – Spain in particular, and also Germany.
In September 1918, the Santa Barbara newspaper wrote, “The bringing of the mysterious malady to our shore is blamed on the Germans. It is remembered that it appeared in Spain after the visit of a U-boat to one of the Spanish ports, and now it is seriously suggested that the germs of the disease were released on our Atlantic coast by Germans, who were put ashore for that purpose.”
Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1919 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the sixth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at
China controls SO much now that they even control OUR political correctness, which is a laugh as they do not have ANY P/C in their culture /country… especially when there are hundreds of thousands in “re-education camps”… But they now have monitary control of Hollywood- so much in fact, that there are no screenplays produced that show China in ANY thing that can be construed as a negative light on China… Just the tip of the Iceburg..
No, I can think critically. But some people hear “Chinese virus” and think bad things about all Chinese people. It may be subconscious. There have been incidents of Americans who look Chinese being harassed. Don’t feed that beast.
I believe your concerns are valid. Not all but a large enough number of Trump’s supporters will interpret the unnecessary rhetoric as a dog whistle (recall Trump’s courting of neo-Nazis and white supremacists). Asian Americans are already reporting instances of abuse. Ironically, there are large numbers of them doing important defense work in SoCal to keep this country safe. And this is how far-right Republicans are repaying them.
China is a major source of pollution and has a long history of viruses coming from their wild animal market.
2017 Avian Flu,
2016 Yellow Fever,
2013 Influenza H7N9,
2009 Swine Flu,
2003 SARS,
1997 Bird Flu,
1968 Hong Kong flu
1957 Asian flu
Last year, nearly half of China’s pigs were wiped out by a virus that causes African swine fever, an incurable disease.
19th century, a wave of immigration from Asia prompted warnings of a “yellow peril” and a supposed threat to public health.
Some historians claimed that China was the likely source of the deadliest flu pandemic in history, the 1918 Spanish Flu.
We may not be able to trace the exact source of the 1918 flu or the 14th century Black Plague.
But we have been able to trace this COVID-19 and the other viruses for the last two decades .
Why in this modern era do we have these issues? Why hasn’t better more effective measures been taken to prevent the diseases or spread of them?
Your last two questions: We have these issues of spreading diseases because of the interconnectedness of the entire world: airlines operated and continue to operate, carrying sick as well as healthy, with some airports known to be infected. It is a) very difficult to prevent the spread – see how even with all the publicity here in SB, people still gather; and b) only by extreme authoritarian methods in Wuhan, with a lockdown for weeks, was China able to slow and apparently stop the spread but, of course, by then it had already spread. So, while China has stopped, mostly, its numbers of cases, the rest of the world population, unable to require a lockdown, is ramping up the numbers of people infected/affected. Even in Santa Barbara; several days ago Mayor Murillo was seen on KCOY-TV as part of a gathering at the former church on Mason Street where groups of people gathered. Humans are social creatures; it’s very hard to social distance — and without that, this disease will continue to spread.
It’s probably a good idea to call out bad animal husbandry practices wherever they happen. Certainly China could improve their ways. But please don’t tar our Chinese Americans with this brush. And even most Chinese people are not to blame, any more than I would be to blame if a disease arose in a factory farm here.
It is pretty clear that President Trump tries to keep pressure on the Chinese government as much as possible. Since the Democrat party and the news media does not like the President then the natural position for them is to come to the defense of the Chinese Government. As Winston Churchill said of Russia in WWII ; “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. ”
Ha! here is a tweet from our “Pearl Clutcher” in chief from one month ago:
““China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus the United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
It clearly only became the “China Virus” when it became clear that the POTUS’ response to the crisis was completely inadequate.
Recent doc on PBS had two bits of info that I didn’t know. 1) the flu got worse the 2nd year after mutating and a lot of the deaths came then. 2) The flu was circulating in the US before our troops were sent to Europe, and they knew that packing them on crowded ships was going to result in a lot of deaths, but they decided to go ahead and ship them anyway. Old men sending young men to die.
The most significant fact in this argument about the use of “Chinese” to describe this virus is that that term is being specifically added by politicians to create an “enemy” to focus on. Trump personally altered his prepared text on the issue last week to change the words corona virus into Chinese virus. Why did he go out of his way to speak this slander? Because if he has someone to blame people can excuse the incompetency of his response. The man is a demagogue fascist and we need to get rid of him lest we lose our nation forever.