danaporter-histpaper-peerreview

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Porter 1

Dana Porter

Ms. Caruso

ENGL 1103

13 January 2012

No Ordinary Plague

The Spanish Flu of 1918 may have only lasted a year but its impact was felt much longer.

This plague killed more people than World War I, and challenged the boundaries of twentieth

century medicine. Although the plague only lasted a short time its affects were felt much longer.

All kinds of people had to live with it. There were mothers and fathers protecting children who

were afraid. Doctors and nurses were in dire need. North America, Germany, Spain, South

Africa and other countries were scrambling to cope with the hysteria. The only thing that this

plague left behind was a high mortality rate, no real knowledge of the thing itself or what to do if

it were to reoccur. This event prompted the attention of the world to study influenza to try and

get a better understanding of it.

The Spanish influenza started in June 1918 and ended December 1920. Between 50 and

100 million people died from the plague, mostly being young adults with strong immune systems

that were attacked. There are many theories of its origin. They span from Kansas to Austria and

the Far East. Although the true origin is still unknown its called the Spanish Flu because it

was highly publicized in that country. Other countries enacted media blackouts because of World

War I. Close contact with others spread the disease faster and the countries involved didnt want

to lower morale by educating the public about the pandemic. Spain, being neutral in the war, had

nothing to lose. The increase in travel attributed to the number of worldwide cases. About a third

of the world as a whole was affected. There was a more deadly second wave of this flu that

Comment [1]:Whitney Roberts

Interviews and stories grouped.

CitationsMain concern is layout of the paper

Comment [2]:Somewhat repetitive. It is saying thesame thing as the first sentence.

Comment [3]:These two sentences are kind of choppy.You could try to switch around thewording and combine them into onesentence.

Comment [4]:As another body paragraph, it could beinteresting to talk about how the doctorsand nurses dealt with the flu. How theytreated the patients and what stresses it

caused on hospitals.

Comment [5]:I wonder why it was young people withstrong immune systems that got attacked,as opposed to young children and theelderly with weaker immune systems?Could be something interesting to lookinto and add to the paper.

Comment [6]:Somewhat choppy. You could rearrange

the words to make it flow more nicely.

You could try: There are many theories ofthe flus origin that span from Kansas to

Austria and the Far East.

Comment [7]:This could be a good break for a newparagraph because above talks mostlyabout what parts of the world the flu wasin, whereas this starts talking about howit was spread. You could separate thesetwo ideas into two distinct paragraphs.


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Porter 2

attacked the U.S. and France with its mutated form. This flu was very unique; most of the deaths

were young adults with strong immune systems. The elderly and young children had a lower

mortality rate which is very odd. Also, it was more prevalent in the summer and fall seasons,

influenzas are usually worse in the winter. Some of the symptoms included high fever, coughing,

body aches, muscle and joint pain, headache, sore throat, delirium, shortness of breath, and

hemorrhaging. The Spanish Flu is sometimes overlooked because of its timing in history. The flu

came along at the same time as the First World War. The deaths from the plague are commonly

looked at as an addition to the hardships of war.

The most interesting part of researching a topic is seeing the event from the eyes of

regular people who lived during that time. Peoples stories, thoughts, and theories about the

event are always good to know. When the plague struck in South Africa people had all kinds of

ideas about why it happened, most of which were those of religious outlooks on the cause. It was

one thought of popular and religious belief that God sent the plague as punishment. It was also a

belief that God played a less direct role and that it was human mistakes and neglect of society

that brought it along. Some non-religious theories said it was biological warfare, the doing of

some other country and that it originated on the Western Front. Another way of getting a

perspective of those who have actually seen the plague is looking at modern day interviews.

People who are interviewed tell stories about the plague from the eyes of a young child. A 98

year old woman was interviewed and told about the day she got the flu after doing chores. She

says she got sick after putting wood in the living room and kitchen stoves. Another elderly

woman says her mom was pregnant with the flu and did her best to protect her from getting it as

well and did not let her around any of the other kids in the neighborhood. She says that it must

have worked though because she never got it. It was encouraging to hear the stories of how

Comment [8]:This could be another nice break for aparagraph. Above you could talk whowas affected by the flu in one paragraph

and then talk about the symptoms andgeneral information about the flu in

another paragraph.

Comment [9]:I am not sure how much information youcan find on this topic, but it might be

interesting to research why peoplethought they were being punished byGod.


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Porter 2

neighborhoods really looked after each other and how people had to go on with their lives and

living with this disease. Even though this horrible thing was happening that didnt change that

they had obligations. People still looked after their cows and chickens, prime the pump, and

handle coal and oil. Husbands and fathers would get sick and wouldnt ever be the same, leaving

a burden on wife and kids to take care of home, property, and income. These stories are from the

memories of 98+ year olds but from the eyes of children and important to account for because

not too long from now there wont be anyone still alive from that time period.

Comment [10]:This could be a good place for a newparagraph. Above are personal stories andtheories from people who lived through

the plague. Here, you could start a newparagraph on individuals obligationsduring the flu and they coped with trying

to maintain a normal home life.

Comment [11]:

I would change the wording of this lastsentence to make it flow more smoothly.

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