How do information and misinformation spread during pandemics?

Summary: In this lesson, you will look at primary source documents from the tuberculosis and influenza pandemics to investigate how information and misinformation circulated during historic pandemics.

Introduction

What is a pandemic?

It’s likely that your life recently changed due to something silent and invisible–a pandemic. While an epidemic is a disease that infects a large number of people in a community or region, a pandemic is an epidemic that spreads across the whole world. Did you have to stay home from school? Stand six feet away from your friends? Wear a mask in a store? You may even have experienced sickness firsthand or known people who have been sick. Chances are, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted you, your family, and your neighbors, even though you can’t see the virus itself.

The coronavirus is a virus, or a germ that can make you sick. A new virus can quickly infect a large number of people and lead to an outbreak. Scientists and leaders often have trouble understanding what causes a viral outbreak or how to stop it right away. As people recover from the virus, they may develop immunity which protects them from getting sick again. To fully stop a pandemic, a vaccine has to be made and distributed widely. Even now, viruses that have caused historic pandemics are still active in parts of the world with less access to vaccines and other medical care.

Pandemics come in different shapes and sizes depending on the type of virus. Sometimes, older people are most at risk. Sometimes it’s more dangerous for children. Different pandemics affect people in different ways, like coughing, fever, and difficulty walking. Pandemics are dangerous because they cause many deaths in a short period of time. They stop either naturally or when people find a cure.

The further you go back in history, the more common outbreaks are. Advancements in medicine and cleanliness have made people healthier. Yet, you know from the changes in your life that pandemics can appear out of nowhere. Then people have to rush to solve mysteries about the virus’s cause and cure.

Mainers have faced pandemics before, so let’s look at our leading question through the lenses of two pandemics in our state.

Tuberculosis

The global tuberculosis (TB) pandemic occurred during the 1800s and 1900s. When the bacteria that causes TB was discovered in 1882, one in seven Americans died from this virus. TB mainly attacks the lungs and
can spread through shared air. Tuberculosis patients develop bloody, mucousy coughs,
chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever, and night sweats.

TB broke out in Maine in the first half of the 1900s. Patients were treated away from their homes in places called “sanatoriums.” Sanatoriums were built in areas with lots of open space and fresh air, away from cities. Sanatoriums were also far away from other people so that patients didn’t get their friends and families sick. Staying in a sanatorium cost money and meant you couldn’t work to support your family, which placed a financial burden on poor and middle-class families who made up the bulk of patients.

The Western Maine Sanatorium in Hebron opened in 1904 and treated thousands of tuberculosis patients over the course of weeks, months, and years. Patients received medical treatment such as fresh air, careful diets, and regulated exercise. The sanatorium was originally privately-run, but was transferred to ownership by the Maine government in 1915 due to financial challenges. When the state government ran the facility, patient bills were limited to $5 a week. Wealthier Mainers could afford to go to private sanatoriums that were more like resorts. The Western Maine Sanatorium closed in 1959 due to new drug treatments and a larger movement away from state-operated treatment institutions.

Influenza

The influenza pandemic, which is often referred to as the “Spanish flu,” was the most severe pandemic in recent history. Contrary to what its name suggests, the Spanish flu outbreak did not originate in Spain. It got the nickname because Spanish newspapers were the first to honestly report about the sickness. Other countries were heavily involved in World War I and didn’t want to show signs of weakness.

The outbreak lasted only one and a half years, from 1918 to 1920, but it infected approximately a third of the world’s population. Like during the coronavirus pandemic, people wore masks and public buildings like schools were closed.

The Spanish flu came in waves. The first of three waves was milder and mainly impacted already vulnerable people like the elderly. Others developed normal flu symptoms and recovered in a few days. However, mutations in the virus made the second and third waves extremely deadly even to healthy, young people. Patients died within hours or days of developing symptoms–symptoms that included blue skin and suffocation from fluid in lungs.

The Spanish flu heavily impacted military personnel fighting in World War I. This was certainly the case for Mainers. Half of the Mainers that died during World War I died from influenza rather than combat. Curiously, there is little photographic evidence of Spanish flu in Maine. It seems that government officials did not want to document the virus’s local toll.

During both the tuberculosis and influenza pandemics, people understood what was happening through a variety of different sources of information. Just like today, newspapers, advertisements, government documents, brochures, and interpersonal communication were crucial in spreading knowledge about disease. Not all of these sources had purely positive intent, though. Some people tried to take advantage of pandemics in order to gain wealth or power.

As you look at the following sources of information about the TB and influenza pandemics, be critical of what you see. Who wanted to spread what messages about the viruses, and why? What seems like information and what seems like misinformation?

The Lesson:

1. Students choose one or more of the primary sources and complete an Analysis Worksheet for each one, using only information from the source itself. If they are not ready for analysis and writing, this can be completed as a class or small group.
2. Discuss the sources as a class. What did you learn from them? What questions do you have? How do the sources connect to the theme?
3. Present source label information to the students. Were you surprised by what you learned?
4. Optional: use the recommended activity prompts and reflection questions for further discussion.

Optional Activity:

Find four sources that share knowledge about the coronavirus: two that spread accurate information, and two that spread misinformation. As you look at your four sources, think about:

• Who is the author?
• What’s their intended audience?
• What message are they trying to spread, and how have they made sure it looks convincing or appealing to their audience?
• What is their goal? How does the message help them?
• What will the impact of their message be, if people believe it?
• How do these sources compare to the historic primary sources you looked at earlier in the lesson?

Share what you found with a group of classmates.

Reflection Questions:

• What reasons do people have to spread misinformation during pandemics? What examples of this have you seen during the coronavirus pandemic?
• What are the main ways you have learned about the coronavirus?
• Who do you trust to share accurate medical information? Why?
• In what ways are information and misinformation shared differently now than they were during these historic pandemics? In what ways has sharing information stayed the same?
• Has the internet made it easier for people to stay safe during pandemics or not?
• How do identity markers like race, gender, age, and class change the ways we learn about pandemics?
• How do some people, businesses, or organizations take advantage of pandemics for their own gain? Have you seen it happen recently?

Pandemic Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine Historical Society, Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.