A Tale of Past Pandemics: 1918 Spanish Flu, Swine Flu, and Covid-19

While attending Choate in the middle of a pandemic seems like a once in a lifetime event, Covid-19 is not the first pandemic to make a mark in the School’s history. In fact, the School has some experience dealing with contagious diseases such as the 1918 Spanish flu and the 2009 swine flu pandemics. Choate’s response to Covid-19 is similar to how the School combatted these past pandemics. While the circumstances were certainly different, many current policies on campus related to the coronavirus are rooted in how the school adapted to similar occurrences in the past.

The 1918 pandemic, or the Spanish flu, made its way onto campus just a few months into the school year, but preventative safety measures started even before then. Many of the School’s actions have been recorded in the yearbooks from the time. 

Graphic by Yuko Tanaka/The Choate News

The correspondences between Mr. George St. John, the headmaster of Choate Rosemary Hall at the time, and students’ parents also provided further insight of the School’s actions during the pandemic. “In October, the students were put in quarantine because there’s a fear, not because they had a case on campus,” explained Assistant Archivist Ms. Stephanie Gold, who is currently analyzing Choate’s responses to past pandemics. 

Choate took this precaution to further ensure the school’s protection from the virus, an almost identical measure implemented in the first week of in-person schooling this fall; no cases had been diagnosed, but all students were quarantined as a safety measure. However, the quarantine period back in 1918 was more lenient since students still had some freedom in terms of movement around campus. However, entering town was strictly prohibited. 

Unfortunately, a case of the Spanish flu was diagnosed on November 13, 1918. Similar to Covid-19, the disease spread quickly. Mr. St. John “was very careful and aware of all the cases that were coming close to campus,” said Ms. Gold. He ensured that the then medical director was vigilant in monitoring the conditions of the flu — a response similar to current Medical Director Dr. Miriam Cohen’s vigilance of Covid-19 on campus. Nonetheless, Spanish flu cases continued to rise on campus, and the School had to adapt. “They ended up having three different buildings on campus used as infirmaries,” Ms. Gold said. The capacity of the Health Center is a potential concern for the coronavirus, but Choate has been able to combat this problem in the past.

The Spanish flu conditions on campus eventually worsened with 30 active cases reported at one point. Mr. St. John then made the drastic decision of closing down the School in mid-November, sending students on an “early vacation,” according to Ms. Gold. During this time, students were encouraged to study from their textbooks. Some sent their work to their teachers via standard mail. 

While the quarantine did reduce student activity, this aspect of the Choate experience was somewhat revived after the extended vacation. Festivities and dances still occurred despite the fact that cases were still recorded in February and March of 1919. Athletics may have continued in some form or another since “football games were still covered in The News but were not mentioned in George St. John’s correspondences, so it’s a mix-up I still have to figure out,” Ms. Gold said. 

While not as much information has been found on Choate’s reactions to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the School was still heavily affected. Students were chosen at random to test for the swine flu, and some of the results began to come back positive. In September, Choate faced its most severe outbreak of this virus, averaging 70 cases per day. The Health Center was expanded once again to make room for the infected students, given that 50-100 were coming in every day with swine flu symptoms. 

In December, swine flu conditions improved. Although a vaccine was released, some students and their families were skeptical about receiving the vaccine. “Some parents [didn’t] want their children to get the vaccine because it [was] so new, and its side effects [were] relatively unknown,” an article from The News at the time reported. Though this is similar to how some feel about a possible Covid-19 vaccine, the circumstances of Covid-19 differ since the approaching winter months are of even greater concern. Combined with spread of the seasonal flu, the coronavirus could be even more dangerous. 

Ms. Gold is currently working on an exhibit to showcase her research on this topic that will be available online during the winter term. It will include many images along with some of the primary documents she has been examining, such as letters and yearbook pages. Many questions have come up about these past pandemics, so this exhibition aims to provide some answers by presenting as complete a history as possible. The exhibition, Ms. Gold said, “is a hodgepodge of different things, but it’ll be broken up into how [the pandemics] affected the head of school, the students, the faculty and staff, and the alumni.”

Choate’s responses to the Spanish flu, the swine flu, and Covid-19 have had similar aspects to mitigating the spread of these highly contagious diseases. Student life has perhaps been hit the hardest by the coronavirus, but the health of the Choate community is the School’s first priority. Ms. Gold’s exhibit will further demonstrate how Choate was impacted by past pandemics, including what we can learn from them.

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