My grandfather died of the flu virus. He was 31 years old — one of millions who perished during the global flu pandemic of 1918.
President Donald Trump wondered last month, "Does anybody die from the flu? I didn't know people died from the flu."
But his own grandfather did, like mine — in 1918.
Whether the president never knew or just forgot is unclear; he seems to not know a lot. For example, that the 1918 flu infected perhaps 500 million people, one third of the world's population at the time, and that somewhere between 50 million and 100 million died worldwide, more than in the two world wars combined.
Has Trump ever considered remembering the past and learning lessons from 1918 and the pandemic one science journalist called "the biggest disaster of the twentieth century"?
Does he know that at first some public officials dismissed the "Spanish" flu as seasonal, one that typically dies out in warm weather, nothing to be taken seriously? Or that it spread widely in the summer heat, then intensified in autumn, ultimately striking in three different waves?
He might be surprised to learn that some local governments downplayed the public risk. Philadelphia held a parade celebrating Liberty Bonds even as 600-plus soldiers and sailors stationed nearby lay seriously ill. Philadelphia's public health director assured citizens that it was just the normal flu and would be contained before infecting the civilian population.
So on Sept. 28, thousands of soldiers, Boy Scouts, marching bands and local dignitaries paraded through downtown Philadelphia as 200,000 spectators lined the streets. Days later, hospitals in the area filled with patients suffering and dying. Soon as many as 500 corpses awaited burial, some for more than a week. Cold-storage plants became temporary morgues.