Another Roaring 20s?
Crimson Pictures, a local production company announced in early April a “boom” in movie production work that has resulted in “most of the crews [being] booked until fall.”
On April 2nd, the CDC announced that “people who are fully vaccinated with an FDA-authorized vaccine can travel safely within the United States.” April 4th saw the highest daily airline passenger count since the pandemic began.
Property developers in Lafayette, LA bought an old cannery for $1 million in April. In an interview with the Advocate, the developer, Marcel Wisza, explained “there is so much pent-up demand …. We’re talking three years from now, and we believe we’ll be well on our way back to normalcy at that time. Certain things that people have been unable to do, they will do in excess.”
Similarities Between Then and Now
A few years after the Spanish Flu of 1918 came a period known as the “Roaring 20s.” Also known as the “Jazz Age,” it was a period in American History characterized in part by economic prosperity, changing social norms, exciting new technologies, and glitzy parties.
The similarities between the COVID-19 pandemic today and the Spanish Flu of 1918 have people wondering – are we headed for a new “roaring 20s?” A Google search of “roaring 20s coronavirus” brings up a slew of articles – “2020s will try to Roar like 1920s after Covid;” “Epidemiologist looks to the past to predict second post-pandemic ‘roaring 20s’;” “Forecast predicts another Roaring 20s.” After being cooped up for a year, a vaccine finally becoming available – people can’t be blamed for imagining life will be like the 1920s – parties, fun (finally), music festivals. Especially New Orleans, a city usually bustling with public celebration – Mardi Gras, Crawfish boils, Jazz fest, Decadence, Essence fest, the Red Dress run – all lost to a year of quarantine.
What the Experts Say
Sociologists and psychologists are in general agreement that there will be a boom in people seeking out social situations. Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a Yale University Medical sociologist says, following a pandemic, “what typically happens is people get less religious. They will relentlessly seek out social interactions in nightclubs and restaurants and sporting events and political rallies… There’ll be some sexual licentiousness. People will start spending their money after having saved it. There’ll be joie de vivre and a kind of risk-taking, a kind of efflorescence of the arts, I think.”
John M. Barry, a professor at the Tulane School of Public Health, says “I think we will probably get into a Roaring ‘20s type of situation, but it will have a very, very different mood. The Roaring Twenties, I think was a reaction, partly to the Spanish influenza, but also to the First World War. People were tired of dying, they wanted to live instead. So I think we’re going to see a lot of tourism and that kind of thing. People are going to want to get out of the house — something they haven’t been able to do for a while now.”
Interview with Terrance Osborne – “Joie de Vivre!”
New Orleans artist Terrance Osborne made national news for his “Front Line” painting honoring nurses and medical staff in April 2020. Now, he is about to release his newest item – wearable art in the form of a pin saying “vaccinated.”
In a phone interview, Osborne gave his impression that the city is returning to life –
“it’s almost like, maybe that’s not the best analogy, it’s almost like everyone is getting dressed to go to a party. We’re at the point where we know that this thing is gunna go away. All the evidence points to it and so everyone’s ready, so there’s this energy in the air about it.”
“I’m noticing people are beginning to hug and shake hands. A month ago, it didn’t happen” said Osborne.
As for the “joie de vivre,” (joy of living) predicted by Dr. Christakis post-pandemic, Osborne agreed with the idea: “the equivalent would be laissez le bon temp rouler … that would be an idea for where it’s headed. In New Orleans, it is a part of our culture to be physically intimate. We hug, we touch, it’s one of our things. Physically affectionate and verbally affectionate is probably the better way to say it.”
Asked what he is looking forward to the most post-pandemic, Osborne says, “I really am just looking forward to just hugging people. That to me, it may seem like a small thing, but when you don’t have it it’s a huge thing.”
“A Century since 1918 – we react the same exact way;” New Orleans’s handling of Spanish Flu and Coronavirus
In order to find out a little more about the parallels between the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Spanish Flu in 1918 in New Orleans, I talked with Dr. Sarah Hanney. Hanney is a native New Orleanian who wrote her masters theses on the Spanish Flu of 1918 in New Orleans. She earned her Doctorate at the University College London (where she now lives) researching the history of medicine. On the arrival on the COVID-19 Pandemic, she says, “I hate to say I knew what was going to happen. But, from spending 11 years of my life looking at epidemics, I kind of knew what was going to happen – viruses tend to have a similar pattern.”
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, according to Dr. Joseph Kanter, the top medical official of the Louisiana Department of Health: “for two weeks in the middle of March (2020), New Orleans had the fastest rate of growth for COVID of anywhere in the world to date. Faster than Wuhan, China, faster than South Korea, faster than Italy, which were all blowing up at that point in time.”
During the Spanish Flu in New Orleans, the City Board of Health closed churches, schools, banned public gatherings (including funerals), and businesses were forced to shut down. The 3,362 flu deaths from 1918-1919 were nearly 2x the national average.
Although now in London, Hanney kept up with New Orleans’s handling of COVID because her mother and sister are residents. She said she was shocked at some of the public defiance of mask orders when the pandemic first hit: “I don’t know if it’s New Orleans’s cultural attitude towards death and disease, but there was definitely a difference between it and other cities. Growing up in Nola we’re surrounded with these images of death and reminders of death.”
Arrival of the Spanish Flu, Economic Impact of a shutdown
The city of New Orleans had its first official death of the influenza on September 29th.
On October 1st, 1918, the Times Picayune published a statement from the President of the New Orleans City Board of Health, Dr. W. H. Robin; he wrote ” influenza does not spread or become severe in warm sunny weather.” Hanney believes Dr. Robin, although not actually certain that this was the case, made the statement to quell New Orleanian’s anxiety.
What followed over the next few weeks were officials downplaying the severity in NOLA. Cities across the US (such as New York and D.C.) began a quarantine procedure that closed down schools and churches to curb the spread. In a City Hall meeting the next week – Dr. Robin said “what the board should specifically avoid ..was laying itself liable to ridicule because of unnecessary restrictions.” Hanney explains: “Just as we have criticism today with our modern pandemic, to what extent do we shut down a city without causing irreparable social and economic damage? Whenever we look at past epidemics – whether it’s today, the 1960s, 1918, or even the 1700s – it’s completely impossible to successfully contain the spread of a disease to the point where you’re going to save the population without sacrificing the social measures that help a society to function and the economic health of a city or society. You kind of have to choose one or the other.”
Headline in the Times Picayune, one week after Dr. Robin rejected calls to quarantine the city.
Public Response
Hanney says: “even though it’s been a century since 1918 – we react the same exact way. There’s a skepticism. ‘Is it going to affect me, is it just going to affect people in China?’ It’s not until things get serious that people realize ‘I need to take action.’” She also mentions the public response was similar – including hoarding of certain supplies at the beginning of both pandemics. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, toilet paper shortages were occurring across the US. Something similar happened in New Orleans during the Spanish Flu.
In 1918, doctors recommended people drink milk to provide natural nourishment for the body in a sort of protection from getting sick. It was thought to lower body temperature, so while not exactly a cure, doctors did publish public recommendations in the Times-Picayune. People latched onto this in New Orleans, and the milk supply was depleted from October-November of 1918. The local government stepped in to regulate prices – some stores were jacking up the milk prices. In mid-October, “emergency milk depots” were opened throughout the city to provide enough milk for citizens.
When asked what she misses most – Dr. Hanney says the re-opening of international travel which will allow her to see her family again “my mom is in her 70s, this constant mentality I have “what if something happens to my mom, I literally can’t event take a flight.”
No Chauvinists 