Who Needs Meddling Health Officers, Asks Salisbury Newspaper, Dec. 18, 1918

From The Carolina Watchman, Salisbury, N.C., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1918

The Influenza and Ignorance. . . The So-Called Health Board Makes Another But Has Gotten Nowhere Yet

The board of Health met last week and found the influenza on the increase in this community. After talking over the situation it was decided that the churches be closed with exceptions of the 11 o’clock services Sunday mornings. It was also ordered that all picture shows and pool rooms be closed until further notice, that all public gatherings be prohibited, that loafing on the streets or the passenger station be forbidden and that all public and private schools in the city and county be closed until further notice. During the past week the number of new cases daily have been reported was between 64 and 115 and it is now known whether all reported had the disease or whether all who did have it were reported. The situation is such that no one seems to know what to do to stamp it out.

This is the second time influenza, or la-grippe, has broken out in North Carolina. In 1892 it was quite prevalent and a number of people died from its effects. There were no meddling health officers, no so-called board of health, and no foolish quarantines, to the disease soon passed, but it is different now, and considerably worse. We are paying $4 per day each for a number of men talking over the situation ordering quarantines and getting no where. The State Board of Health sends out pretentious bulletins, frequently reversing itself and accomplishing nothing, and the United States investigators make entirely different reports while the Thomasville orphanage goes through an attack of the disease and comes out with flying colors, just used common sense and didn’t lose a case.

\The State Board of health says “Spanish Influenza and tuberculosis are communicated in the same way. There is, however, a marked difference in the incubation period. Influenza shows up in from a few hours to a few days after the infection enters the body. Tuberculosis, on the other hand, may not show up for years.

“The prevention of both these diseases is the same. The flu is spread by the cough and the sneeze, without shielding the mouth and nose, thereby spraying the air and all persons nearby with the infective material.”