Lessons of the pandemic: age-old advice in fighting viral contagion. From the article:

The most astonishing thing about the pandemic was the complete mystery which surrounded it. Nobody seemed to know what the disease was, where it came from or how to stop it. Anxious minds are inquiring today whether another wave of it will come again….

Three main factors stand in the way of prevention. First, public indifference. People do not appreciate the risks they run. The great complexity and range in severity of the respiratory infections confuse and hide the danger. Theinfections vary from the common cold to pneumonia. They are not alseparate entities by any means….

Third, the highly infectious nature of the respiratory infections adds to the difficulty of their control. The period of incubation varies considerably; in some infections it may be as short as a day or two. And the disease may be transmissible before the patient himself is aware that he is attacked….

What is said here of the influenza pandemic is put forward only as the writer’s view at the present time. Nobody can now speak authoritatively upon this subject. When all the facts are brought together some of the ideas which are held today may be found to require modification. We are still too close to the event to fully measure it. Individual researches and the efforts of innumerable workers, must be reported and evaluated. The mass of statistical data which has accumulated in cities, towns, camps, and hospitals must be assorted, tabulated, and studied before it will be possible to speak with anything like finality as to the efficacy of the measures of control employed….

It is worth while to give more attention to the avoidance of unnecessary personal risks and to the promotion of better personal health. Books have been written on the subject. The writer’s idea of the most essential things to remember are embodied in the following twelve condensed rules…:

  1. Avoid needless crowding — influenza is a crowd disease.
  2. Smother your coughs and sneezes — others do not want the germs which you would throw away.
  3. Your nose, not your mouth was made to breath through — get the habit.
  4. Remember the three C’s — a clean mouth, clean skin, and clean clothes.
  5. Try to keep cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep.
  6. Open the windows — always at home at night; at the office when practicable.
  7. Food will win the war if you give it a chance — help by choosing and chewing your food well.
  8. Your fate may be in your own hands — wash your hands before eating.
  9. Don’t let the waste products of digestion accumulate — drink a glass or two of water when getting up.
  10. Don’t use a napkin, towel, spoon, fork, glass or cup which has been used by another person and not washed.
  11. Avoid tight clothes, tight shoes, tight gloves — seek to make nature your ally and not your prisoner.
  12. When the air is pure breathe all of it you can — breathe deeply.

Published in the journal Science, May 31, 1919.