[Jagat]

Spanish flu was very closely intertwined with the war, because of which people were kept in the dark almost everywhere. Lack of reporting translates to lack of awareness of the pandemic which translates to people working and shopping fearlessly.

The difference now is that people know there's a pandemic, and many would be averse to go out working, or shopping even though the scale is much lower than that of Spanish flu.

Random tidbit:. It's named Spanish flu because that's one of the few places where it was reported, because it wasn't involved in ww1 and had no reason to shut down the press. Everyone thought the flu epidemic was in Spain.

[hilbertseries]

During the Spanish flu pandemic, entire cities and towns would get sick and everything would stop. There were also shelter in place orders given during this time. 1918 wasn’t the dark ages, we had telephones and radios. People knew what was happening.

[credit_guy]

> and radios

According to wikipedia first news on radio came in 1920.

"The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radio#20th_century

[dboreham]

Downtown Abbey didn't get either a radio nor telephone until after the war. They had telegram.