Should people be forced to wear masks or face masks in public places? This is the question facing governments as more and more countries ease restrictions and closures, and more than 30 countries have made gags mandatory in public places.
Here we recall the echoes of the major influenza pandemic, nicknamed the Spanish flu, which killed about 50 million people between 1918 and 1920, i.e. a century ago, and this historical period represents a fascinating case study of how people endure very strict restrictions, as long as they think they are justified and worthy of following.
The Great Close
In his article on the website of Conversion, Samuel Cohen, professor of history at the University of Glasgow, considers the Spanish flu pandemic to have caused the largest package of restrictions in the United States, including the closure of schools, churches, fountains, theaters, cinemas, shops, and barber shops.
There were financial fines for coughing, sneezing, spitting, kissing, and even talking outdoors, and a flu police was employed to arrest children playing on the streets and sometimes even in their backyards.
Restrictions were also severe in Canada, Australia and South Africa, although they are much lower in the UK and the rest of the European continent.
Historians say that the public agreed to all of these measures with a few protests at the beginning, and unlike the long history of cholera, especially in Europe, or the plague in the Indian subcontinent from 1896 to about 1902, no mass violence linked to the epidemic occurred.
A heated debate
Yet there was scholarly debate from the start about whether gags were effective, but that ended after French bacteriologist Charles Nicole discovered in October 1918 that the flu was much smaller than any other known bacteria.
The news quickly spread even in the small American newspapers. Caricatures have been published saying that it is similar to using "barbed wire to prevent flies", and this coincided with a high death rate in the western states of America, and in Canada.
Despite Nicole’s discovery, various authorities began making gags mandatory, and San Francisco was the first major American city to do so in October 1918, and many photographs from this era show wearing gags in public, at a time when many have said It is useless and considered it a violation of civil liberties.
Rebellion against the measures
San Francisco saw the establishment of the American "anti-muzzle" association, as well as a number of protests and civil disobedience, and people refused to wear masks in public places, or deliberately used them incorrectly. Some went to prison for not wearing a muzzle or refusing to pay fines.
In Tucson, Arizona, my banker insisted on going to jail instead of paying the fine. In other western states, judges have regularly refused to wear the muzzle in courtrooms, and in New South Wales reports of the breach of the muzzle law were inundated in various newspapers.
England was different, as it was advised to wear masks only as a precaution in large cities, and only later for certain groups such as influenza nurses in Manchester and Liverpool. Serious questions about its efficacy only appeared in March 1919, and an official US survey in 1918 showed that 78% of nurses contracted the infection despite carefully wearing the masks.
It is clear that many of these details are relevant to the world today facing the Corona pandemic, and the discussion then took place - as now - about the authorities adopting strict measures towards specific practices, and ignoring other practices that may be more dangerous, and the American writer concludes by saying that the history of the muzzle needs extensive study. .