It has been over 100 years since the world experienced the devastating 1918 pandemic, and history seems to be repeating itself, according to UC Davis professors

Before COVID-19, it had been over 100 years since the world experienced the H1N1 influenza pandemic, more commonly known as the Spanish flu. The flu hit right at the end of World War I and continued in waves into the 1920s, and the virus was believed to have far more fatalities than the war. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Spanish flu caused 50 million deaths worldwide. 

Despite its name, the Spanish flu was thought to have originated from the U.S.. Spain remained a neutral country during the war, and the national newspaper in Spain was one of the only papers that reported about the virus, leading to the name ‘Spanish flu.’

COVID-19 parallels the Spanish flu in many ways. Pictures of people wearing masks in 1918 and anti-mask protests have been circulating around social media as of late. Last April, The California Aggie completed its digitalization of its archives since its foundation in 1915. The archival records show articles written by Davis students in 1918, when the Spanish flu pandemic was at its peak.

“Influenza Regains Foothold at Farm, Students Are Warned to Prepare Against Dreaded Epidemic

The influenza, it seems, is with us again. The infirmary is again doing a rushing business. Several cases are reported in the University House, and some of the sturdy farm-hands have also found themselves not immune to the terrible disease. We all thought that we had gleefully bid it farewell for the last time but it seems ‘the cat came back.’ We all hate to see it back, because we all found the mask to be uncomfortable, but they seemed to do the work. Thanks to our able school physician we are able to say we have not had any deaths among our classmates. That is a record that a good many institutions cannit boast of. Don’t let us spoil this record! Come, let us put on the masks again! Yes, they are uncomfortable and we all hate to wear them. But what is that compared to loss of life. You, yourself might be a victim. If you feel the symptoms of the disease go immediately to the infirmary and see the doctor. You are not doing the right thing by going to your classes and going among your fellow students if you are affected. It is not right for you to spread this disease. In order to stop this disease we all must co-operate.”

  Dr. Sarah Dye, an assistant professor of global disease biology, gave a brief overview on the scientific similarities and differences between the two diseases. 

“Scientifically they’re completely different viruses,” Dye said. “They are in two totally different taxonomic groups, although they are both respiratory viruses, have similar symptomatology and both originated from animals and migrated to humans. But they aren’t closely related.”

Another key difference between the two viruses is the age group they affect the most. According to Dr. Edward Dickinson, a professor of world history and the history of imperialism, the Spanish flu mainly targeted men ages 20-40 whereas COVID-19 is believed to most severely impact individuals ages 65 and older. 

Dr. Neil McRoberts, a professor of plant pathology, studies the epidemiology of vectored plant diseases and the impact of the spread of diseases throughout populations. According to McRoberts, COVID-19 is believed to be much more deadly. 

“Even though there were 40 million people who died from the Spanish flu, COVID-19 is known to be much more infectious, so you are more likely to catch it compared to the flu,” McRoberts said. “The fatality rate for COVID-19 is much higher compared to influenza and the reason that there were significantly more people who died from the Spanish flu is largely due to the fact that we were not scientifically advanced enough to treat influenza back then.”

Research has shown that the 1918 influenza strain was highly virulent and transmissible. According to Johan Leaveau, a professor of plant pathology and disease and society, a combination of low quality medical care, poor hygiene and lack of medical technological advancements contributed to the higher numbers of deaths for the Spanish flu. By the end of 1919 there were believed to be 50 million lives taken by influenza. So far COVID-19 has taken about 1.5 million lives. 

In early March of 2020, California was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order. Dye discussed how the concept of quarantining was implemented during the Spanish flu as well. 

“From what I understand about the 1918 pandemic, there were no strict lockdowns like we have now,” Dye said. “The response from health officials was like localized patchwork, meaning that the federal government didn’t have a lot of influence on how the 1918 pandemic was controlled. Local responses played a much stronger role, which is similar to what we are seeing with COVID-19 with states issuing different policies about quarantining.” 

According to Dye, another reason that stay-at-home orders were not mandated during the 1918 pandemic was because a majority of the working class held jobs that required in-person manual labor. 

“A strict quarantine would have been more difficult to implement without completely shutting down the economy in 1918 because we didn’t have things like Zoom,” Dye said. “If people fell sick and stopped going to work, they stopped earning money and that would have made it difficult for them to support themselves and their families.”

Leaveau further explains how the lifestyles of people during the pandemic hasn’t changed much over the past hundred years. 

“What strikes me the most are not so much the differences, but the similarities,” Leaveau said. “People were asked, as they are now, to stay home, socially distance and wear masks; shops closed and went under; people got tired of the pandemic and of the mandates imposed by public health officials and let down their guard, which resulted in additional outbreaks and preventable deaths. It all sounds very familiar.”

The public responses to the two pandemics have been significantly different in terms of provided care, Dye explained, largely due to the fact that the majority of the population was not treated in hospitals during the Spanish flu.

“I think the fear was a bit more tangible in the 1918 pandemic,” Dye said. “With COVID-19, if someone gets really ill, they go to the hospital. You aren’t allowed to visit them, so you don’t really see the gruesomeness firsthand unless you are a healthcare worker. With the 1918 flu, those who were sick were most likely put on bed rest in their homes instead of being treated at hospitals, and oftentimes they would see people on the streets getting very sick and dying.”

Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, the health restrictions in 1918 like wearing a mask caused resistance, Dye said. 

“Interestingly, there were people that protested wearing masks back in 1918 and there was even a whole anti-mask league that was formed in San Francisco with people claiming that masks made them hot and uncomfortable like they do now,” Dye said. “So I do think that there is a lot of similarity between the two pandemics in terms of the public responses [to health directives].” 

There have been a lot of technological advancements in the past century, some of which have helped healthcare officials fight COVID-19. Advancement in social media and news coverage, however, has been detrimental to flattening the curve, according to Dickinson. 

“I think social media has clearly had a very negative impact [on COVID-19],” Dickinson said. “There are bizarre theories floating around—about this being a fake epidemic—that are given currency by the fact that anyone can post whatever they want to. The amount of disinformation that is being produced is incredible, and there wasn’t the capacity to generate nonsense in 1918.”

Dye believes, however, that the spread of false information was prevalent even in 1918, and countries went as far as censoring information about the virus to maintain wartime optimism. 

“There was a lot of disinformation even back in 1918, but not [to] the extent that it spreads now,” Dye said. “The pandemic was going on during World War I and so countries that were actively fighting in the war wanted to suppress reports of how bad the influenza pandemic was to keep up morale for the war.”

McRoberts explained how through social media and the news coverage, the pandemic has become more of a political issue than a global health crisis. 

“Social media is dangerous in a situation like this,” McRoberts said. “The ideas of social distancing and masks have become a political issue and the spread of misinformation about the importance of these things has become essentially uncontrollable. While we are battling the COVID-19 pandemic, we seem to also be fighting the misinformation epidemic, which was not as significant or even possible in 1918.”

Dye noted that in addition to social media, a lack of a unified message about the response to the virus in some countries has played a role in the spread of COVID-19 compared to the Spanish flu. 

“I do think that back then, staying home when you were sick and taking the proper precautions to stay safe were considered to be more a patriotic duty,” Dye said. “By staying home you would help win the war and [it would be] for the good of your country. And we’ve only heard that message from our government recently, from President-elect Joe Biden.”

McRoberts noted that in addition to the increased patriotism in 1918, the growing rate of social individuality has been a contributing factor in the countries with the highest rate of infections. 

“Back then, around the world there was a stronger social fabric,” McRoberts said. “People would conform to what was expected of them, and they generally had a stronger tendency to follow instructions, compared to what we see now.”

In the early 2000’s the idea of One Health was introduced at the CDC. The goal of One Health is to have a method of local, national and global collaboration to achieve optimal health care for people around the world. Dye explained the role of One Health in the fight against COVID-19.

“We have scientists now who have been studying diseases like this and other animals for potential viruses,” Dye said. “To a degree, we had some knowledge about coronaviruses and how they worked, so we had scientists ready to hit the ground running because they were already studying zoonotic disease that had the potential to become catastrophic.” 

It has been over a century since we last experienced a pandemic, and Dye shed some light on what she thinks we as a society have learned from these health crises. 

“I think one of the biggest lessons that we learned from the 1918 pandemic is the importance of getting on top of it quickly,” Dye said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if that has even really been implemented now with COVID-19. Governments didn’t really start taking action right away, so the Spanish flu was able to spread fast. Once it starts to spread it’s much harder to control it, which is what we also saw happen with COVID-19.”

Dye also emphasized the importance of having government and health care organizations that are able to gain and maintain the trust of the public. 

“Organizations and governments in charge need to be transparent and openly communicate and give out reliable information,” Dye said. “Right now there is so much controversy because the information that was given to the public kept changing. And unfortunately, that’s just the way that science works; you learn and then you revise your hypothesis and then you revise your recommendations. But not everyone understands how the scientific method works, to them it might seem like no one knows that they are talking about.”

According to Dr. Joanne Emerson, an assistant professor of plant pathology, a sense of unity is important to combat a pandemic.

“What we can learn from the current pandemic and the 1918 pandemic is the importance of a coordinated body.” Emerson said. “As a society we need to do a better job of outlining how our personal actions can impact the welfare of others. This issue is not one dimensional and these are events that are going to impact our future generation, and we need to keep that in mind.”

Written by: Sneha Ramachandran — features@theaggie.org

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as the first pandemic since 1918. The article has been updated to correct this error.

Organizations share their impact on the Davis and Yolo County homeless communities

While today’s “new normal” continues to change many aspects of life, issues like homelessness have remained present amid the difficulties of a pandemic. With rising health concerns, leaders in Yolo County continue to adjust in order to provide resources for the homeless community. 

Under normal circumstances, the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter (IRWS) in Davis provides the homeless community with shelter and a home-cooked meal. This involves a process of intake, transportation and arrival at the host site. A distribution of dinner follows before the guests go to sleep and are transported back to a drop-off site in the morning. 

Linda Scott, a long-time member of the IRWS board, described the moments of kindness that took place with the homeless community in the shelter. 

“Occasionally, when the weather was really bad, when we went from a large site to a small site, we would have to do a lottery for who could sign up for the smaller site,” Scott said. “But what happened is that our guests were very kind to their fellow guests. Somebody would say, ‘Well, he’s really sick, I’ll let him have my place.’ Women virtually always had somebody give them a place to stay if there was no room.”

Due to COVID-19, these services have been halted and replaced with alternative housing options. IRWS applied for and received a government grant to rent apartments that will house the homeless community. Scott stated that they are specifically serving the most vulnerable population, which is made up of people over 60 and people with underlying medical conditions.

Scott shared how the decrease in college students in Davis left more room to help people get off the streets and into apartments. 

“Because so many students are not on campus this fall due to COVID, there are actually available apartments in Davis,” Scott said. “And a really wonderful apartment building owner agreed to rent 25 two-bedroom apartments at a reduced cost. We also got donations of furniture and things that you need in the apartment, and then with the grant money got the rest of the things that everyone needs.”

Two of these apartments are being used as offices, but the remaining 23 apartments can house 46 people. Scott reflected on the power of the service and IRWS’s hopes for the future. 

“It gives them a place to be inside and away from COVID, out of the cold and to live basically a normal life,” Scott said. “Originally, we got the apartments through March, and we’re applying for another grant to have the apartments till the end of July, which is when the owner wants them back. Our goal is to hopefully get housing vouchers for the people who are in the apartments so that they can move into permanent housing.”

Fourth & Hope in Woodland has continued to provide services to the homeless community in Yolo County, such as a year-round shelter. This faith-based community’s primary areas of focus are homeless services, treatment and housing. Dawn Brown, the Fourth & Hope development and marketing manager, explained the specific shifts that have taken place in order to simultaneously provide for the homeless community and comply with health guidelines. 

“The emergency shelter has adjusted services within this new climate by operating with day services, seven days a week for our overnight clients to have a way to shelter in place,” Brown said via email. “Beds have been moved into the dining room for distancing, and barriers have been installed between beds in the men’s and women’s dorms. All new clients must be thoroughly screened and possibly quarantined before entry. COVID testing is done onsite as needed.”

Beyond being the designated shelter for Yolo County, Fourth & Hope provides further services to move the homeless community toward a more secure and bright future. 

“We provide case management services that connect our shelter clients with resources such as housing, employment, health services, income assistance, clothing and food closets,” Brown said via email. “Clients are required to follow a case plan specific to their individual needs.”

Looking forward, Brown shared that Fourth & Hope is moving to an expanded shelter in Woodland.

“These last months have been filled with challenges and uncertainty—and hope,” Brown said via email. “We are doing all we can to sustain services for our community and our most vulnerable neighbors. While a lot of uncertainty remains, we know that we need to be ready to adapt fast to our changing reality.”

Grace in Action is a Christian outreach ministry in Davis that has been involved with aiding the homeless community. Before the pandemic, Grace in Action would provide indoor lunches twice a week inside the United Methodist Church of Davis and Pole Line Road Baptist Church. They had to move these lunches outdoors, however, because the church buildings are not open. Grace in Action also serves to connect people in need with different organizations. 

Steve Smith, the executive director of Grace in Action, described the organization’s ability to understand the members of the homeless community as individuals and actively solve the problem. 

“In relation to all these other organizations, we try to see what gap is not getting filled,” Smith said. “It’s because we know people and what their situations are, and they know us, [and have] been able to trust us for a long time. We are very familiar with a lot of people’s circumstances and therefore able to target what we do.”

Although efforts such as apartment housing are being made to help the homeless community, Smith shared that there is still work to be done. 

“These are different needs we see with people right now,” Smith said. “They still don’t have enough to eat, they may not have furniture, they still may not be properly clothed, so we work with other organizations, but we also plug gaps in a shifting scene which COVID has created.”
Written by: Nora Farahdel — features@theaggie.org

The UC system’s support for immigrant students aims to help them through changing legislation and administrations

In 2015, the UC system began an initiative to provide legal services for immigrants directly through the school. Operating out of UC Davis’s law school, the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center (UCIMM) has been able to help students and their immediate families with legal services related to immigration and has inspired other higher education institutions to do the same.

The UCIMM has branches at all UC campuses, each of which have legal fellows, like Ariel Bailey at UC Davis, who shared some of the legal services that she and the other fellows provide for UC students.

“I do consultations and represent our clients who are associated with the UC Davis campus,” Bailey said. “We do general immigration consultations where we review an individual’s immigration history and personal situation to determine if they have any forms of immigration relief available. If they do, we can provide legal advice or even full-scope representation related to applying for immigration relief. The most common types of things that we do are DACA renewals and eventually hopefully DACA initial applications.”

Rachel Ray, a managing attorney at the UCIMM, explained that in addition to DACA, the center also provides comprehensive consultations, family petitions, U and T visas for students and their family members, special immigrant juvenile status and referrals for legal matters outside of the center’s abilities. It provides all of these services to students completely free of charge, and they are even working to bring similar programs to other colleges and universities nationwide. 

The center has put together the “UCIMM Toolkit,” which is a resource containing important information about the UC’s immigration legal services model, in the hopes of expanding this service to other higher learning institutions. Ray explains that the toolkit aims to guide other institutions to create programs similar to UCIMM on their own campuses. UCIMM has consulted with the California State University system, the California community college system, the University of Oregon and other institutions. 

“We do semi-regular advising of other higher learning institutions who want to implement a program similar to ours,” Ray said. “We’ll talk with them about their students’ needs and everything from funding to case management software to how to hire attorneys.”

Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Ray explained that the needs of her students have changed, as the president has consistently threatened DACA throughout his term. 

“There is a lot more fear and there are, generally speaking, fewer options for students,” Ray said. “The bulk of our clients are DACA recipients and DACA has been in flux since 2017, and we do a lot of advising on DACA and a lot of DACA renewals.” 

In addition to changing DACA policy over the last four years, Bailey added that there has been a lot more confusion in the realm of immigration legal services.

“The biggest thing is just how quickly immigration policy has changed,” Bailey said. “It can be very confusing for even an attorney to navigate those changes, but for individuals who are trying to focus on school and living their lives, it can be a whole lot to deal with. So, we, as an organization, have had to […] be pretty nimble and react to a lot of changes and make sure we’re keeping students informed and staying on top of the law.”

As Bailey said, DACA policies have added new barriers for students who are also trying to juggle their course loads, jobs and commitments on and off campus. Since President-elect Joe Biden was officially announced as the president-elect, the center released a statement about their optimism for the next four years.

“It is our great hope that the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will reverse the many anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration,” the UCIMM team stated on their website. “In the months leading up to the election, we have been working to increase our capacity to assist the many students and family members who may be newly eligible for immigration relief under a Biden administration.”
Written by: Katie DeBenedetti — features@theaggie.org