Decision-making Amongst the Community in Coventry during the 1918-19 Spanish Flu Pandemic

The 1918–19 Spanish Flu pandemic had an unprecedented morbidity and mortality. There has been a significant amount of work on how and why medical and civil authorities responded to such a mass sickness event. However, those without formalized medical training or political power also actively decided how to respond to sickness and death within their own communities, whether that was their household, neighbourhood or workplace. Moreover, they drew on pre-existing repositories of knowledge and strategies for ill-health. This paper discusses how those without medical training in Coventry, with a focus on the household as a site of healthcare, made decisions about information legitimacy, sourcing and providing support and the role of the doctor. It will suggest that the pandemic’s unprecedented elements did not overwhelm local resident’s decision-making capabilities. Instead, they made active and decisive decisions based on established ways of understanding and approaching ill-health

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Influenza pandemic · Pandemic · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) · History · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · Virology · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

• In constant fear of some dire epidemic breaking out’

  Open Access•Keir Waddington•Rural History•2024

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