The Spanish Flu Outbreak of 1918: A Tale of Two Samoas

The Spanish Flu was responsible for the deaths of more than 20 million people worldwide, it killed more people than World War I. This is a true story of how a U.S. official saved thousands of lives while his counterpart under New Zealand's control refused to quarantine which caused the deaths of almost a quarter of the entire population!

The moral of the story: Don't be foolish and allow the spread of deadly flu for political reasons or incompetence. I fear if this were to happen today, our fools in power would get us all killed.

medium.com...@shortformernie/samoa-spanish-flu-history-948ed1ec0401

How quick thinking by a U.S. official saved thousands of lives from disease in an American territory — despite its non-American counterpart being decimated.

John Martin Poyer, the U.S. Navy-appointed governor of American Samoa, heard the news of the risk from this disease and immediately took steps to coordinate ships from the U.S. mainland to assist with what was expected to be a dramatic outbreak.

His strategy, effectively, was to quarantine anyone with the disease on the Navy ships, with the goal of isolating the problem. He was successful — not a single person in American Samoa died of the Spanish flu, one of just a few areas in the would where that could be said.

It certainly wasn’t the case in nearby Samoa. Robert Logan, Poyer’s counterpart, had similarly been appointed to his role by New Zealand

But unlike Poyer, he failed to control for the flu, allowing ships to dock unencumbered, leading the disease to quickly overtake Samoa. Within the span of just a few weeks, a fifth’s of the territory’s population had died.

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Poyer’s work was so impressive, especially in comparison to what Logan had done, that people living on Samoa had decided that they’d rather have the U.S. controlling their territory, rather than New Zealand.

a reply to: infolurker

They indicated it mostly affected healthy people between the ages of 15 and 40. Is it possible the virus may have interacted with hormones.

Nz had just lost a 10th of its population to WW1,I think we found it hard going to do anything, and being we are a small country with a small economy back then,it could have been easier for USA to deal with. Also wasn't Samoa occupied by the Germans just before being made a US territory?