Title: Winter Scene, Tracy Park, Portsmouth, Ohio, 1918
Black and white photo image of various individuals and one goat in snowy Tracy Park. In 1853 Tracy Park was given to the city of Portsmouth by Francis Campbell in honor of his attorney, Samuel M Tracy. John R T Barnes, the first Scioto County soldier to die in the Civil War, is represented on the 40 foot monument which was dedicated in 1879.
“Scrooge then made bold to inquire what business brought him there.
“'Your welfare!' said the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end.
“The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately: 'Your reclamation, then. Take heed!'
– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
Copies Galore, Portsmouth, Ohio, reprinted 2001, “Crossing the frozen Ohio River at Portsmouth, Ohio to the Kentucky side.,” Local History Digital Collection, accessed December 22, 2021, https://www.yourppl.org/history/items/show/873.
Have you ever wondered what it was like living through a pandemic in 1918? How about Christmas then? Let's consider that very thing this holiday season. There are interesting parallels with our present situation and some stark differences. Maybe we can learn something valuable by looking back to a Christmas past.
Globally, about 500 million people were infected with the 1918 flu – or about a third of the population – and at least 50 million died (about 3% of the population. The 1918-1919 pandemic is believed to have ended because of what’s referred to today as “herd immunity,” meaning that the virus had infected enough people so that there weren’t enough susceptible people for the virus to continue spreading at pandemic levels.
(Olivia B. Waxman. “Lessons From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on How to Celebrate the Holidays Amid COVID-19.” Time. December 21, 2020.)
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has become the deadliest disease event in American history, with a death toll surpassing that of the 1918 Spanish flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in waves of illness that stretched out over roughly two years in this country: more than were killed in the U.S. Civil War.
That pandemic, like the coronavirus today, seemed to roll across the United States in waves. Shortly before Christmas in 1918 things were very bleak. In October 1918 alone, an estimated 195,000 Americans died – a staggering death toll given that the U.S. population was less than a third of what it is now.
Time reports, “Worst of all, this flu disproportionately took the lives of men and women in their 20s and 30s, while often sparing the very old and the very young – two population groups that are especially vulnerable to the flu in most years. The average age of those who died during the pandemic was 28 years old. The U.S. life expectancy in 1918 fell to 39 years.
(Bryan Walsh. “Solving the Mystery Flu That Killed 50 Million People.” Time. April 29, 2014.)
Note From the Centers For Disease Control
In 1918, as scientists had not yet discovered flu viruses, there were no laboratory tests to detect, or characterize these viruses. There were no vaccines to help prevent flu infection, no antiviral drugs to treat flu illness, and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with flu infections.
Available tools to control the spread of flu were largely limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI’s) such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limits on public gatherings, which were used in many cities. The science behind these was very young, and applied inconsistently.
City residents were advised to avoid crowds, and instructed to pay particular attention to personal hygiene. In some cities, dance halls were closed. Some streetcar conductors were ordered to keep the windows of their cars open in all but rainy weather. Some municipalities moved court cases outside. Many physicians and nurses were instructed to wear gauze masks when with flu patients.
The Mood For Christmas – “Cautiously Optimistic”
As Christmas neared in 1918, people were cautiously optimistic because that winter’s “grippe” (as they sometimes called it) seemed a bit milder than the preceding year’s.
In cities in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest, the virus seemed much less threatening by the 1918 holidays, to the point where Americans thought they could gather safely. In the western U.S. however, the virus hit later in the fall, and so the 1918 flu posed a bigger threat to those on the West Coast than the East Coast in November and December.
So, by December there was a sense in the country that the threat had largely passed.
End of the War
"The holiday spirit is abroad in the land," wrote The Salt Lake Tribune, "and the 'flu' is not so much of a menace as it was a few weeks ago." There was another cause for celebration: the end of World War I.
To fully comprehend the holiday that year, one must consider that the Christmas of 1918 came with one other awful fact rarely directly addressed. No one knew for sure who was coming back from the war and who might suffer from terrible injuries.
The Armistice had been more than a month before Christmas in 1918. Those who had cheered the end of the war back on November 11 weren't fully aware that most of America’s serious losses, war deaths and serious injuries had occurred in the war’s final weeks. More than a month after cheering the victory, the War Department was still releasing lists of the injured, the seriously wounded, the missing in action, and the dead.
(Jack Neely. “Christmas 1918.” Knoxvillehistoryproject.org. December 18, 2018.)
Note From the Library of Congress
During the war, 224,000 soldiers suffered injuries that sidelined them from the front. Roughly 4,400 returned home missing part or all of a limb. In 1917, the Red Cross opened the first institution dedicated to training amputees and individuals with damaged limbs: The Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men in New York City. Though not initially established for veterans, the institute soon found itself inundated with World War I soldiers.
Of course, disability was not limited to missing limbs … A soldier could come home with all limbs and digits intact yet struggle with mental wounds.
Nearly 100,000 soldiers were removed from fighting for psychological injuries; 40,000 of them were discharged. By 1921, approximately 9,000 veterans had undergone treatment for psychological disability in veterans’ hospitals. As the decade progressed, greater numbers of veterans received treatment for “war neurosis.” Ultimately, whether mental or physical, 200,000 veterans would return home with a permanent disability.
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from around 15 to 22 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
The United States had entered the war on December 7, 1917. 116,708 American military personnel died during World War 1 from all causes (influenza, combat and wounds) while over 204,000 were wounded. Notable is that more U.S. soldiers died from the 1918 flu than were killed in battle during the war.
1918 found America reeling from the double punch of war and disease. History.com reports that the pandemic, combined with mortality during the First World War, caused United States life expectancy to drop by 12 years.
Still, Christmas spirits were high. For now, the war was over and "the boys" were coming home. The great training and mobilization camps were beginning to wind down their operations and large numbers of American soldiers were gathering at European ports. Most of the American Expeditionary Force would not be home by Christmas.
Americans were exhausted and sad about the disease; they were ready to move on. The celebration of Christmas and the end of the war increased their confidence. They overwhelmingly hurried to return to their pre-pandemic routines. The burden of public health had begun to shift: it now rested not on policy but rather on individual responsibility.
Meanwhile, the flu continued to spread. – little did the public know a third wave would come with a vengeance. The third wave of the pandemic subsided during the summer of 1919. There were no nationwide regulations. Responses were left to the states and often it was municipalities that set the rules.
Lantern article, 1918
Ohio and Christmas 1918
The local Chillicothe newspaper informing residents about the current status of the camp quarantine due to Influenza.
How were things specific to Ohio that Christmas? Barry D. Wood, staff writer for The Columbus Dispatch, reports the following:
“In south central Ohio, the Spanish flu was a grim reaper until the end of 1919. Fear and panic were acute because a huge nearby army camp training soldiers for service in Europe was the scene of a horrific outbreak. During that grim October an average of 104 soldiers died every day at Camp Sherman outside Chillicothe.
“Local papers wrote that during the peak of the outbreak bodies were stacked like firewood as they couldn’t be buried or shipped home fast enough. In 1918, there were nearly 1,800 deaths and 5,600 cases of flu at Camp Sherman, where men lived, trained and ate in close quarters.
“Cincinnati suffered greatly from the flu. A quarter of the city’s population became infected and 1,700 people died. In Columbus, 49 miles from the army camp, 1,236 citizens succumbed to flu … Cincinnati implemented some of the most stringent measures like forbidding bonfires. Used clothing couldn’t be sold and spitting was a punishable offense. Downtown hotels removed couches and chairs from lobbies to prevent loitering. Theaters and bars were closed. Restaurants operated with restricted hours.”
(Barry D. Wood. “Column: 1918 flu pandemic terrorized Ohio towns.” The Columbus Dispatch. June 27, 2020.)
1918: The first municipal Christmas tree appeared on Fountain Square in 1918
On a personal note, Barry Wood says in rural Gallia County fear of the Spanish flu hung over every conversation. Wood's father, Howell Wood, remembered that when he was 16, his mother and father sent him on a mission in December 1919 to rescue their infant grandson from the flu. His parents had learned that their married daughter and husband – parents of a 3-month old baby – had been sent to bed with the flu and their home put under quarantine. The grandparents were terrified the baby would die if he wasn’t removed from the quarantined house.
Howell remembered the journey – slow going so the horse wouldn’t stumble in potholes hidden under a layer of ice. Howell took two hours to reach his sister’s farm.
Wood wrote …
“Upon arriving, Dr. Robert Howell, dad’s uncle, emerged from the front door with a stern look on his face.
“'You can’t come inside,' he told his shivering nephew, 'that would risk you taking the virus back to your mother.' Instead, Uncle Rob said Howell could try to get warm in the woodshed and wait for the baby wrapped in blankets to be brought out.
“In retelling the story, dad was dismayed that his uncle seemed to care little for his well-being. As it turned out the return ride was uneventful. Howell cradled the baby in one arm while his free hand held the reins.”
(Barry D. Wood. “Column: 1918 flu pandemic terrorized Ohio towns.” The Columbus Dispatch. June 27, 2020.)
Many Ohio Troops Were Still Abroad
On December 25, 1918, thousands of Ohioans were in Europe, serving as United States soldiers in the Great War. With the Compiegne Armistice of November 11 fighting ceased on the Western Front, but a formal peace had yet to be signed, and the soldiers remained near the battlefields on which they had fought.
Cyrus Moore of the Ohio World War I Centennial Committee reports …
“When Christmas came, Ohioans of the 37th 'Buckeye' Division infantry were in Belgium, not far from the Scheldt River where they had been when the war ended. Artillerymen of the 37th were in France, close to the Meuse-Argonne where they saw action in the closing days of the war.
'Some, like the soldiers in the 166th Infantry Regiment and contingents of the 83rd Division, enjoyed Christmas in Germany as part of the Army of Occupation. Still others were scattered around France and Italy. Wherever they were, Ohioans made the best of celebrating the holiday while serving overseas, with gifts from home or organizations like the YMCA, and by blending their own traditions with local customs.
“Even for all of the festivities, soldiers longed to return home. In a letter to his sister, Private Ralph Roesch wrote 'I had the blues a good many times. But I never had them as bad as I did today. Every time anyone says ‘Merry Xmas’ it makes me feel like… I want to sit down and have a good cry.' At the time he wrote the letter, Private Roesch was serving with the 332nd Infantry in Italy. He also wrote of the YMCA providing chocolate, lemon drops, and cigarettes to the men, who were likely as homesick as Roesch.
(Cyrus Moore. “Christmas 1918.” Ohio World War I Centennial Committee. December 21, 2018.)
Other Buckeye Vets Were Home
Fortunately for Ohioans who spent Christmas of 1918 in Europe, they had survived the fighting and not long into 1919 the War Department began bringing them home.
On Christmas Eve, thousands of veterans who had already returned flocked to New York City to attend lavish parties and festive dances. On Christmas Eve 1918, The New York Times reported that thousands of soldiers would be welcomed into homes in New York City and invited to attend dances and feasts.
At one event at the 71st Regiment Armory on Park Avenue in Manhattan, “besides the fun and the dancing there will be 300 pounds of chocolate fudge made by pretty girls, and ever so many pounds of iced cake, mostly made by their mothers,” the report said.
(Jacey Fortin. “Holidays in a Pandemic? Here’s What Happened in 1918.” The New York Times. December 09, 2020.)
Nonetheless, there still were a lot of soldiers in Columbus on Christmas Day 2018. Some were wounded men who had come home to recover. Others were men in training who would not see the combat they had been trained to undertake. Still others were men who had completed their duty and now were being welcomed home by the happy residents of central Ohio.
Influenza ward at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Photograph by Harris and Ewing, November 1918.. Image shot 1918.
Ohioans Were Warned About Celebrations
Columbus, Ohio, health officials had traced a 27-case flare-up to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by an elderly woman and attended by her seven married sons and daughters. The December 5 Ohio State Journal reported that the acting state health commissioner said the flu was “one-fourth” as fatal as it was in that October, and mostly appearing in children, attributing the decreased fatality rate to “People have learned how to treat an attack, namely, by going to bed and staying there until fully recovered.”
(Olivia B. Waxman. “Lessons From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on How to Celebrate the Holidays Amid COVID-19.” Time. December 21, 2020.)
Christmas came to the Buckeye State with other warnings. Public health officials urged those who did gather in person to keep their distance. “You want to be a little careful whose relatives you kiss, is the state health commissioner’s Christmas advice to girls,” reported the December 21, 1918, Ohio State Journal article headlined “Flu Fighters for Kissless Holiday: Beware of Mistletoe and Be Careful in Osculatory Indulgence, Health Chief Warns.”
The commissioner's counsel to young men was the same, except, perhaps, a little more emphatic because girls still adhered to the custom of letting the fellow make the first move. “Beware the mistletoe,” was his warning to all.
“You will show your love for dad and mother, brother, sister and the rest of ‘em best this year by sticking to your own home instead of paying annual Christmas visits, holding family reunions, and parties generally,” the commissioner said.
(Livia Gershon. “What the Pandemic Christmas of 1918 Looked Like.” Smithsonian. December 14, 2020.)
Lack of kissing and visiting aside, the general public did celebrate the holiday. In fact, local newspaper summed up the holiday season in Columbus and central Ohio in 1918 well when it noted "It was a happy Christmas in Columbus."
Dayton Newspaper
An important part of recent holidays at the time had been singing. In an era when many people get their music electronically, it may be forgotten that back then, those who wished to hear people singing had to go to where the singers were.
Ed Lentz of The Columbus Dispatch relates of Christmas 1918 …
“Choirs singing in churches, as well as local groups singing for the troops and the public, were extraordinarily well-received after the outbreak of war. In time, these efforts led to larger and larger groups of people singing together in what came to be organized as "community sings."
“Perhaps one of the largest of these events in the recent history of the city took place on Christmas Eve 1918, when 500 girls – members of the Patriotic League – gathered near Broad and High streets and sang for a large group of people gathered nearby. It was a cold night, with a sharp wind and a fine mist in the air trying to become snow but not quite succeeding.
“Unfazed by the weather, the girls sang long and well and then split into smaller groups. Boarding open-bed freight trucks, they set off to sing carols in every neighborhood near the downtown, cheered on in their travels by soldiers and civilians alike.
“On Christmas Day, the major theaters in town were open and delighted to see who was arriving at the box office. In the face of the deadliest influenza epidemic in history, Columbus officials had banned children from attendance at local theaters, parks and other facilities. Local schools had closed, as well.”
(Ed Lentz. “As It Were: Post-war holiday hailed with song.” The Columbus Dispatch. December 17, 2018.)
A Cincinnati Board of Health streetcar sign during the epidemic, educating passengers on how to prevent influenza, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.
So, to many people, it seemed as if the epidemic had ended. Children were permitted once again to be out and about. And since children are what much of this holiday is about, out they came.
Lentz reported Columbus folks were ready to feast: “They were hungry, too.” He explains …
“The menu from the State Restaurant at 13 1/2 E. State St. reveals what they might have eaten:
"Michigan Celery, Ripe Olives, Mock Turtle Au Madeira, Broiled Jumbo Whitefish maitre de hotel, Roasted Vermont Turkey, Oyster Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, Candied Yams, Cauliflower Polonaise, Head Lettuce-Orange Salad, Ice Cream, English Plum Pudding-Brandy Sauce, Hot Mince Pie, Coffee."
“The menu notes the restaurant provided music from 5:30 to 7 p.m. -- and all at just $1.50 a plate. It was a nice place for a nice time in a world at peace.”
(Ed Lentz. “As It Were: Post-war holiday hailed with song.” The Columbus Dispatch. December 17, 2018.)
Quit Spitting On the Floor
Concerns Everywhere – Christmas Changes
As municipalities determined what public activities should or shouldn’t be permitted in 1918, people were puzzling through their own choices about how to celebrate the holidays.
“When you’re reading people’s diaries, they are fatigued obviously but also measured,” he says. “You don’t find people freaking out about this. They mourn the loss of traditional ways of celebrating the holidays, and they want to see relatives and are wondering whether they can or not.”
Many churches in the country canceled their usual Christmas Eve services for fear of crowding and endangering members of their congregations. Lendol Calder, a historian at Augustana College in Illinois, reports that the closing of churches was a major issue in Milwaukee, a city that took the pandemic especially seriously – and that was also home to deeply observant German and Norwegian immigrant communities.
“To have churches closed during the Advent-Christmas season was huge,” Calder says. “That was people’s social media, to go to church.”
(Livia Gershon. “What the Pandemic Christmas of 1918 Looked Like.” Smithsonian. December 14, 2020.)
Closings didn't bother many young people. Their young minds were focused on other matters close to their young hearts. Violet Harris was 15 years old when the influenza epidemic struck her hometown of Seattle. Her high school diaries, recounted by grandniece Elizabeth Weise in a recent USA Today article, initially reflect a childlike naivete. On October 15, 1918, for example, Harris gleefully reported:
“It was announced in the papers tonight that all churches, shows and schools would be closed until further notice, to prevent Spanish influenza from spreading. Good idea? I’ll say it is! So will every other school kid, I calculate. … The only cloud in my sky is that the [School] Board will add the missed days on to the end of the term.”
(Livia Gershon. “What the Pandemic Christmas of 1918 Looked Like.” Smithsonian. December 14, 2020.)
Parkersburg, West Virginia
What about the commercial side of Christmas in 1918? Without an official government order to shut down and stay home, stores all over the country remained open for Christmas shopping in crowded indoor spaces.
The truth was that shopping had started earlier than usual, by government request – to avoid wartime transportation tangles that could affect the American war effort. Some started shopping as early as October. It seems as if that first early shopping fever became a habit, doesn't it? Can you say “Black Friday”?
There was a great surge of shoppers weary of wartime rationing and quarantining. For example, in Salt Lake City, the December 21, 1918, Salt Lake Tribune reported: “Thrift and economy have been practiced to a very considerable extent during the past year, and the Spanish influenza hurt business to an almost alarming extent. But the holiday spirit is abroad in the land, and the ‘flu’ is not so much of a menace as it was a few weeks ago.”
Newcomer’s store ad, Knoxville Journal, December, 1918 (McClung Historical Collection)
Knoxville, Tennessee, archives report items for sale that season were mostly practical things, clothes of all sorts, but also velocipedes and Iver Johnson bicycles, pianos, phonographs. Newcomer’s offered Tennessee pearls. The new automotive stores sold all sorts of accessories for the minority of people who owned cars. And, Ouija boards were big, touted as “the jolliest, most mystifying entertainment.”
Board Game: Kop The Kaiser. /Nkop The Kaiser. American Board Game By Milton Bradley, C1916.
With the end of World War I, Stores were perhaps urgently trying to unload the board game “Kop the Kaiser,” a dice game that “gives children a chance to get even with Bad Bill” by rolling dice and avoiding U-boats.
(Jack Neely. “Christmas 1918.” Knoxvillehistoryproject.org. December 18, 2018.)
What About Precautions?
Many still followed suggestions from healthcare officials, but many others did not by December. “To me, the most cogent lesson is that most people in 1918 did celebrate Christmas holidays with their family. And to me, the result was the so-called third wave that began in mid-January,” says Howard Markel, physician and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and the Co-Editor in Chief of The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia.
(Olivia B. Waxman. “Lessons From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on How to Celebrate the Holidays Amid COVID-19.” Time. December 21, 2020.)
As municipalities determined what public activities should or shouldn’t be permitted, people were puzzling through their own choices about how to celebrate the holidays. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via
Though 1918 health officials didn’t know if they were fighting a virus or a bacterial infection, they did know that masks, when combined with social distancing and frequent hand-washing, slowed the spread of the virus.
Some anti-maskers of the day felt their rights were infringed on. Some Christian Scientists cited religious objections. And other people simply found masks too much trouble. It didn’t help that masks at the time were generally homemade, using several layers of cheesecloth and were supposed to be boiled for ten minutes every day to keep them clean.
(Livia Gershon. “What the Pandemic Christmas of 1918 Looked Like.” Smithsonian. December 14, 2020.)
So, if you are wondering about similar arguments concerning masking requirements of that day, look at reports from the West. As Christmas 1918 approached in San Francisco amid a continuing flu pandemic, the city was caught up in a fervid debate: Should citizens be made to wear masks? Two months earlier it had been the first U.S. city to pass a mask law, backed up with a fine of $5 or up to 10 days in prison.
But resistance was wide and strong. Opponents called the masks uncomfortable, unsightly, and an impingement on their freedom, and hundreds of resisters were arrested, requiring extra police shifts. When the law expired on November 21, people celebrated and threw their masks into the street.
As case numbers rose and Christmas loomed, the city reconsidered a ban, but amid fierce opposition it was voted down on December 19. Weeks later a surge would bring a reinstatement of the ban, giving rise to an Anti-Mask League. But for Christmas at least, residents were free to go barefaced, to the chagrin of public health director William Hassler. "The dollar sign," he lamented, "is exalted above the health sign." Some things never change.
(Staff. “The Christmas of 1918.” The Week. December 25, 2020.)
Aftermath – The Third Wave
Who would doubt that history can provide us both great perspectives of the past and lessons about the future? As we weather another COVID-19 Christmas in 2021, I believe 1918 provides valuable insights for our present U.S. population, a group similarly sick of the epidemic and all of its terrible and restrictive consequences. Human nature is human nature, no matter the century or the virus. People want to celebrate Christmas … and their daily lives for that matter … in their traditional ways, no matter the threats of public officials. And, in doing so, rashness and disregard can result in untold death and destruction.
In 1918, the government's refusal to give Americans firm guidance and their inability to resist gathering until it was safe to do so caused a third wave of influenza infections to sweep the entire globe as soldiers worldwide left crowded barracks to participate in similar welcoming ceremonies over the holidays in their own home countries. That third wave of avoidable mass illness and death would not subside until the spring.
(Winnifred Frolik. “What Missteps During the Spanish Flu Pandemic Can Teach Us About Celebrating Christmas Safely During COVID-19.” Endoctrineweb. December 15, 2020.)
So, listen up, history buffs and true science believers.
Just before Christmas 2021 Omicron cases of the virus are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days with documented spread. And in the US, it's expected to become the "dominant strain" in the coming weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
The United States is likely in for a hard winter as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 spreads rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci says, straining a health care system already battered by the Delta variant.
"It's going to take over," Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said of the Omicron variant on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, urging Americans to get vaccinated and get their booster shots. "And be prudent in everything else you do: When you travel in your indoor settings that are congregated, wear a mask."
"We can't walk away from that, Jake, we can't," he told CNN's Jake Tapper. "Because with Omicron, that we're dealing with, it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter."
(Dakin Andone and Susannah Cullinane. “Omicron 'is going to take over' this winter, and Fauci says Americans should brace for a 'tough few weeks to months.'” CNN. December 20, 2021.)
Let's compare the reality of gathering together at the Christmas of 1918 to that of 2021.
Howard Markel says one advantage people of 1918 had in terms of making holiday plans is that family gatherings were generally not the treasured once- or twice-a-year events they are for many people now.
“Extended families often lived together or right near each other, next door or upstairs,” he says. “Getting together for a holiday meal was much less of an event than it is today, when many people don’t live in their hometown.”
To whatever extent that joy encouraged people to gather in public or hold Christmas parties at home, it certainly contributed to some of the infections and deaths in the third wave of the flu. In light of the current high rate of infections, that’s something worth taking seriously today.
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole turned heads on December 15, 2021, when she advised people, just 10 days before Christmas, not to gather with other households for the holiday or host indoor parties.
“I know just how important it is for all of us to see our friends and family for the holidays,” she said during a news conference. “We all miss those gatherings and connections. After nearly two years of doing everything we were supposed to do, we want the chance to see everyone’s smiling faces. It’s hard and it feels impossible, and it feels unfair, but I know and our contact tracing tells us that these gatherings when we get together with friends and family are when we infect each other with COVID.”
(Felicia Gans Sobey. “What to know about Philly’s warning against gathering for Christmas.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 15, 2021.)
Add the following to your historical knowledge today, December 22, 2021 …
“This week’s national ensemble predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will remain stable or have an uncertain trend over the next 4 weeks, with 5,300 to 13,000 new deaths likely reported in the week ending January 15, 2022. The national ensemble predicts that a total of 838,000 to 844,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date.”
The real question to consider is this: Was Bettigole wrong in giving that timely advice?
Last Updated Dec. 22, 2021
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