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Yale University quarantines in 1918 flu pandemic

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panflu deaths in 1918

-------------------------------------

Yale University:3/~3000=0.1%

New Haven:796/162537=0.5%

USA:5e5/1e8=0.5%

world:5e7/1.9e9=2.6%

Princeton university:1/1142=0.1%

Princeton city:32/5700=0.6%

http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/chm/influenza/princeton.htm

other escape communities:

http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/chm/influenza/

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The 1918 influenza quarantine

YALE SHUTS HER GATES TO OUTSIDERS DURING NEW HAVEN PANDEMIC

Today the Gothic Gates of campus may appear to separate Yale from the

rest of New Haven. In 1918, this barrier was taken to the extreme.

That year, under fear of the influenza virus, the University placed

itself under a virtual quarantine.

Although the wrought-iron gates could not keep the pandemic — the

largest and most wide-spread in history — from spreading, the

University isolated all students and faculty to minimize the health

threat brewing in the city. Already, because of America's simultaneous

involvement in World War I, Yale had been transformed into a military

training ground for the Army and Navy, with strict regulations

governing daily life for civilians and soldiers alike. And with the

flu and Yale's subsequent lock-down thrown into the mix, the divide

between Yale and the city became even more apparent.

Irwin GRD '10, a doctoral candidate in History of Medicine and

Science, has researched the 1918 pandemic as a case study of Yale-New

Haven relations. The military presence on campus largely impacted the

University's strategy in combating the onslaught of the disease, she said.

" Yale was really trying to train people for the military and trying to

protect those people from getting sick, " Irwin explained. " But what

does that say about the community and the disparities in health and

wealth? "

On Oct. 4, 1918, the Yale News — which later became the Yale Daily

News — reported on the University Emergency Council's decisions

regarding regulations in response to the pandemic. Members of the Yale

community were not allowed to make contact with other civilians unless

the participants obtained a special pass, which was restricted by the

Council to " official assignments. " Visitors were banned from the

military posts, and University secretary Anson Phelps Stokes canceled

all on-campus public meetings.

Meanwhile, some individuals from the Yale community, such as

- Amory Winslow, chair of Yale School of Public Health

and a city public health official, made efforts to reach out into the

community, which consisted largely of an immigrant population, Irwin said.

" They found it was pretty pervasive everywhere, [but] it turned out to

be a little worse in the Italian communities, because they were in

more crowded conditions, " she said. " He was extending Yale's reach to

the community but at the same time you have this segregation going on. "

But even these efforts could not stop the flu's onslaught throughout

the city surrounding Yale.

The flu came in two waves: one in October 1918 and the second in

January 1919, Irwin said. At the time, New Haven was Connecticut's

largest city, with a population of 162,537 people.

By Oct. 20, New Haven had already reported 209 influenza-related

deaths, but by that same year, only one Yale student had lost his life

to the pandemic. And by the end of the year, Yale had lost three

students, according to the 1918 Annual Report of the President of Yale

University, Irwin said. New Haven experienced 796 deaths. And despite

what was happening outside the University, Stokes declared that the

pandemic had been defeated on Oct. 12, only two days after the

University's first student death.

" It looks as though the back of the epidemic, in so far as Yale is

concerned, had been broken, thanks to the excellent precautions taken

by the medical officers of the Army and Navy, and the care taken of

patients at the Infirmary and the Cloister, " Stokes announced in the News.

Yale, like New Haven, designated additional buildings as makeshift

hospitals to accommodate for the influx of patients. Although Yale had

its medical resources supplemented by the military presence on campus,

Connecticut's Commissioner of Health T. Black, had to urge its

doctors and nurses to stay in the state and treat the ill, since many

had been traveling northeast to fight the epidemic in Boston.

Snowden, a professor of history of medicine, said that Yale, as

a small community, was able to successfully protect itself by means of

isolation.

" In 1918, the strategy was to cut Yale off from the city, " Snowden

said. " The city-town relationship would have been configured

differently because it would have involved the U.S. Army and

government, a war situation. "

Snowden, who is on leave this semester but has taught Epidemics and

Society in the West since 1600, suggests that the recurring history of

pandemic epics of influenza indicates the possibility of another one

in the future. In the twentieth century alone, the pandemic form of

influenza reappeared in 1957-1958 and 1968-1969 — which raises

questions as to how the University would respond to such an epidemic

today.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seems to agree with

Snowden. Along with the Centers for Disease Control, the department

has prepared a " Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist " specifically

for colleges and universities. The checklist delineates the importance

of collaboration between the university and the local community, both

in integrating and testing the emergency response.

University Deputy Secretary Martha Highsmith could not be reached for

comment to discuss the University's epidemic response plan.

Nava Rafati '11, who grew up in Israel where she said she was raised

to be constantly prepared for any emergency, emphasized the links

between Yale and New Haven that, in a present context, would render

the University's 1918 response obsolete.

" Our priorities have shifted — I think American society is generally

becoming more conscious of other people, " Rafati said. " Yale is a huge

part of New Haven — it shapes the city in a lot of ways — and I feel

like we owe a lot to the residents of the city. "

Although the University's 1918 response reflected the regimentation of

military life, today's reaction should reflect the increasingly

cosmopolitan nature of everyday society, Rafati said.

Lanre Akintujoye '09, one of the organizers of Yale's upcoming Global

Health Week, stressed the efforts that Yale has taken to further

integrate itself into the broader New Haven community since 1918.

" Even though students joke that there is definitely a line between

where Yale ends and New Haven begins … Yale's response would have to

take into mind that Yale is situated in New Haven, " he said.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23179

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