bjgreen
(Image: Santa Barbara Morning Press, September 13, 1914)
By Betsy J. Green
Just as the threat of the “Spanish flu” was being felt on the streets of Santa Barbara in October 1918, it was also having an effect at the film studio at Mission and Chapala streets. On October 23, the local paper reported, “‘Flying A’ Shuts Studio for 30 Days . . . Because the government is desirous of having all moving picture studios suspend the distribution of releases for a period of 30 days . . . the American Film Co. decided to suspend operation here for one month.”
Betsy’s Way Back When book — 1919 — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the sixth book in her series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time. Learn more at
Gee, the shutdown has been used before. And apparently complied with–people not in the streets then complaining about dictatorships and demanding freedom to infect others.
For 30 days. Not 3-5 months possibly more. The word “quarantine” is 40 days of this. Again not 3-5 months.
Jojo, And of the 11 that have died, most had existing underlying medical conditions according to the reports. And 1 was in hospice care when he/she contacted it and died.
But you have to remember that the Spanish flu pandemic ran from January 1918 to January 1920, a period of 2 years. It infected 500 million people and killed an estimated 50 million. Do you really want to propagate this pandemic for the next 2 years because you and your neighbors don’t want to self quarantine or maintain socially distancing and wear a face covering? I don’t and hope through others actions that this pandemic doesn’t continue on for an extended period of time. I will continue to follow the CDC recommendations unlike Trump and his minions and hopefully live through this pandemic for a few more years.
It was for 30 days! We’re now over two months in with no end in sight. We just keep extending and extending. Do you think they did that? No, that’s why there were no protest. I could have handled 30 days but they are pushing it now, trying to make it a lifestyle, the “new normal” (eff that!).
What about the pandemic in 1957? Do you remember that over 116,000 died in the US when we had half the population that we have now. There was no shut down, no wearing of masks. But we got through it. And do you remember the pandemic of 1968? Over 100,000 people died in the US with not much more than half the current population. But we got through that one too. Do you remember the pandemic of 2009? Same story. The thing that seems to me to be different this time is the media and politicians feeding the fear.
Funny that the 1918 Flu actually started in Kansas a year earlier and brought over by doughboys rapidly conscripted to bring the US into the war. All the warring countries at the time were under news blackout except Spain which called it the French Flu. 10s if not 100s of 1000s died on the front from flu symptoms but given the inability to fight it were just added to battle casualties.
11:02 AM… too bad viruses can’t read and won’t comply with rhetorical arguments used against them.
This lockdown and precautions are critical to be continued after all 700 people have died from Covid in Santa Barbara and the beds are full throughout the Cottage system. With that….wait a minute oh only 11 have died not 700 out of 310,000. Well that is only .000025 of the population. But that’s because Cottage is full over whelmed. Wait you say out of the 400 beds only 26 are full from Covid and 65% of total beds are empty and they have laid off half the medical staff. Oh never mind.
11:02 a.m. You are not seriously suggesting that because the word quarantine is based on ‘forty’ that it can only mean forty days of restriction are you? When the word began to be used there was no scientific technology explaining how infections worked, spread and were abated. Taking the 40 day rule from the ancient times and applying it to modern society in defiance of knowledge is pretty scary stuff. Sort of like suggesting we inject bleach in our lungs.
My sentiments exactly.
The basic reproduction rate for the 1957 flu was 1.8, versus somewhere between 2 and 3 for our current coronavirus, which means the current one is more contagious. We have a much larger population, which means contagious diseases spread more easily. Covid-19 is also turning out to have some bad after effects (like kidney damage) and now this bad inflammatory problem some children get. There is a lot we don’t know yet.