History-Packed Twitter Thread Uses Spanish Flu Missteps To Highlight Importance Of Masks

Author image for Ada Elder
Ada Elder
Apr 25, 2020 3:00 PM EDT

As people in the United States are suffer from cabin fever and empty pockets, some citizens and law makers are protesting everything from lockdowns to wearing masks. Most medical experts, including the esteemed Dr. Fauci, warn against loosening coronavirus-related restrictions too quickly. They're worried it could lead to more illness, and even worse, death. Nobody wants to take one step forward and two steps back when lives are on the line.

 In response, NPR Investigative correspondent Tim Mak decided to do some serious digging regarding San Francisco's Anti-Mask League of 1918. The Anti-Mask league's moniker is pretty self explanatory. It was a group that rejected the use of masks following the initial Spanish Flu outbreak. After months of keeping inside and wearing masks when they needed to join the outside world, people decided they were over it. Up to 90% of people decided to go maskless. After the city proposed mandatory mask-use, thousands of people calling themselves the Anti-Mask league showed up to protest. As Spanish Flu cases in the California City were rising. Eventually, a mandatory mask ordinance was enacted, and cases (after increasing) seemed to slow down. Still, San Francisco was one of the hardest-hit American cities. The thread is a cautionary tale - and you can read the gory details below. 

Stay safe, and please wear a mask.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Text - Tim Mak @timkmak THREAD - History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes: a thread about the **Anti-Mask League** of 1919. I'm not kiddingI went HAM researching this So, starting in Sept 2018 San Francisco suffered from Spanish Flu pandemic. Initial mask wearing was good -- around 80 percent
    via @timkmak
  • 02
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak By November cases were down, and public health officials recommended re-opening the city. Residents rushed to entertainment venues after having been denied this communal joy for months. The Mayor himself was fined by his own police chief after going to a show without a mask. 2:11 PM · 4/19/20 · Twitter Web App
    via @timkmak
  • 03
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d Replying to @timkmak But a second wave surged in Dec 1918, and SF's Health Officer again urged people to wear masks voluntarily Left to their own devices, most citizens - by one count 90 % - refused to wear masks. Businesses, concerned about Christmas sales, opposed. So did Culinary Workers union 27836 ♡ 5,479 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d San Francisco residents were fed up. This was the second wave of the pandemic, and they had already spent months between Sept and Nov
    via @timkmak
  • 04
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d The San Francisco Chronicle turned against the notion of mandatory masks. Was the death rate high enough to justify remasking? Wasn't this just the return of normal seasonal colds? How much was this due to a public "scare' and hype? 95 27549 4,584 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d An op-ed ran in the local paper w/ headline 'What's The Use?" after a man got sick despite following public health guidelines. A promised vaccine turned out to be bogus 100s of citizens congregated
    via @timkmak
  • 05
    Text - Tim Mak @timkmak On Dec. 18 someone had sent what appeared to be an improvised explosive device to San Francisco's public health official signed, "Compliments from John.' (!!!) The story via historian Alfred W. Crosby: On the night of December 18 a package was found at the entrance to the Muirhead Building. Why it was there instead of Hassler's office to which it was addressed, no one could say. It contained three pounds of black gunpowder, a quantity of buckshot and broken glass, and an
    via @timkmak
  • 06
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak San Francisco's Public Health Officer stuck by his guns, refusing to back down, and saying there was evidence that masks helped! He implored the public to look to the data! Wear masks! They help! More via Crosby: It seemed to Hassler that San Franciscans were preverscly ignoring the facts. He pointed out on December 12: "When the masks were removed, only ten cases a day were being reported. Nine days later the daily total was reaching 75, and it has increased ever since
    via @timkmak
  • 07
    Text - @timkmak · 5d Replying to @timkmak Tim Mak But the public declined to listen to SF's Public Health Officer. On Dec 19, officials voted down a mandatory mask order. "The dollar sign is exalted above the health sign," sighed the public health officer. By far the worst day of flu/pneumonia deaths followed on Dec 30 )1 27940 O 5,762 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d Flu got worse in San Francisco when masking was voluntary. A representative of organized labor relented: "It is of no time to quibble over
    via @timkmak
  • 08
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak - 5d So on Jan 10, 1919 local officials voted to approve a new mandatory mask order after 600 new cases were reported that day. Citizens were arrested/fined for not having masks on, but widespread disobedience of the order continue & large numbers of citizens refused to wear masks. O6 27556 O 4,410 Tim Mak O @timkmak - 5d Protests continued: Over 2,000 people attended an event formed by San Franciscans called themselves 'THE ANTI-MASK LEAGUE, denouncing the mandatory ma
    via @timkmak
  • 09
    Text - Tim Mak Moderates in the Anti-Mask League wanted to circulate an anti-mask petition. O @timkmak · 5d Extremists wanted to initiate recall proceedings of SF's Public Health Officer. Chaos broke out until someone shouted, "I rented this hall and now l'm going to turn out the lights." (Mak note: lol) 27411 ♡ 4,187 Tim Mak O @timkmak - 5d The San Francisco Public Health Officer was a man named Dr. William C. Hassler. Think of him as the 1919 Dr. Fauci. Ignored by those who didn't want to beli
    via @timkmak
  • 10
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d I haven't read anything about how many people became sick DUE to the Anti- Mask League event, where 1000s gathered to protest without masks. So we may not know how many people, if any, became sick due to this congregation But safe to say it was not helpful during pandemic O 10 27416 ♡ 3,976 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d On Jan 17, the day the masking ordinance went into effect, the # of new cases/deaths declined, the first decline in quite some time. This continued until
    via @timkmak
  • 11
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d Of course, the SF Public Health Officer -- the 1919 version of Dr. Fauci, got no credit for the decline in influenza cases. People continued to gripe about the masking even after the pandemic had been stalled by it 27493 O 4,417 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d No one seemed to credit masking for the success of blunting the Spanish Flu in San Francisco -- because, well, the crisis faded due to its success "Rarely has the evidence in support of a scientific hypothesis been m
    via @timkmak
  • 12
    Text - Tim Mak O @timkmak - 5d Ultimately San Francisco was one of the American cities hardest hit by the Spanish Flu. 673 per 100,000 people died during the pandemic due to influenza and pneumonia, per U of Michigan. 50K cases total and 3,500 were killed, per Crosby. Q 17 27512 3,870 Tim Mak O @timkmak - 5d PHOTO: Masks being worn by players during a baseball game, in newspaper Mar 1, 1919 via The Independent books.google.com/books?id%3D1Vusi... 26 27993 5,048
    via @timkmak
  • 13
    Text - Tim Mak @timkmak · 5d The 1918/1919 protests against mask wearing and other public health measures have parallels to today O We learn through this episode that various groups of Americans have been pushing back against public health measures for more than a hundred years -- and for similar reasons!! O 25 27906 O 5,114 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d In learning about the Anti-Mask League of 1919, we see many of the same human elements as today: a portion of the population resistant to the measure
    via @timkmak
  • 14
    Text - Tim Mak This is essentially a report that I pieced together by reading sources after getting curious about the 1919 Anti-Mask O @timkmak 5d League. Any mistakes are my own. I started by drafting a few tweets and then spent an hour and a half researching it last night. One thing led to another... 38 27393 ♡ 4,420 Tim Mak O @timkmak · 5d SOURCES: The University of Michigan's Influenza Encyclopedia The San Francisco Chronicle's archives America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by
    via @timkmak

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

lockdown history Twitter Thread spanish flu covid-19 coronavirus
Scroll Down For The Next Article