Philly’s previous pandemic
Why the 1918 flu pandemic hit Philadelphia especially hard and what we can take from it today during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Listen 14:28
A Naval Aircraft Factory float, featuring the hull of a F5L patrol seaplane, heads south on Broad Street in Philadelphia, escorted by sailors with rifles. Note the crowd of onlookers. This parade, with its associated dense gatherings of people, contributed significantly to the massive outbreak of influenza which struck Philadelphia a few days later. (NH 41730 courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command)
Listen to The Why wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RadioPublic | TuneIn
As people try to wrap their heads around the COVID-19 pandemic, historians are pointing towards a different pandemic: the 1918 flu outbreak. Here’s the story of why that disease hit Philadelphia especially hard, and what we can take from it today.
Guest: Robert Hicks, scholar and historian at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.
Brought to you by The Why
The Why
There’s more to every story if you take the time to tell it.
A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing
The U.S. transplant system ordered hospitals to quit using a test that made Black patients' kidneys appear healthier than they really were.
8 months ago
A Philadelphia surgeon’s invention and historic open-heart operation is celebrated 70 years later
Dr. John Gibbon invented the heart-lung machine and used it to perform the world’s first successful open-heart surgery on May 6, 1953.
2 years ago
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793: ‘All was not right in our city.’
Join us on an audio walking tour through Philadelphia's Old City to discover how the yellow fever epidemic challenged the city’s health and political infrastructure.
5 years ago