Department of History, CMB#1033, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner, Tacoma, WA 98416-1033, USA.
Public Health Rep. 2010 Apr;125 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):134-44. doi: 10.1177/00333549101250S316.
Americans were stunned when pandemic influenza hit the United States in 1918. Recent advances in bacteriology and public health allowed Americans to imagine a future free of infectious disease, even as their familiarity with influenza tempered their fears of it. They soon realized this influenza was something unprecedented, as it shocked them with its pace, virulence, mortality patterns, and symptoms. Patients endured and frequently succumbed to a miserable illness, their suffering often made worse by the chaotic circumstances the epidemic produced in families and communities and shaped in significant and sometimes discriminatory ways by their gender, class, and race. While the nation's public culture soon forgot the epidemic, it lived on in lives changed irrevocably by its consequences. As they face present and future influenza pandemics, Americans can learn from this earlier experience, guarding against identity-based discrimination and acknowledging and remembering the grief and loss fellow citizens suffered.
当 1918 年流感大流行袭击美国时，美国人感到震惊。细菌学和公共卫生的最新进展使美国人想象一个没有传染病的未来，尽管他们对流感有所了解，但这也减轻了他们对流感的恐惧。他们很快意识到这种流感是前所未有的，因为它的传播速度、毒性、死亡率和症状都让他们感到震惊。患者忍受着并经常死于一种痛苦的疾病，他们的痛苦常常因疾病在家庭和社区中造成的混乱而加剧，并且由于他们的性别、阶级和种族而以重大且有时具有歧视性的方式表现出来。尽管这个国家的公共文化很快就忘记了这场流行病，但它的后果却在不可逆转地改变着人们的生活。当他们面对当前和未来的流感大流行时，美国人可以从这一早期经验中吸取教训，防止基于身份的歧视，并承认和记住同胞所经历的悲痛和损失。
