We've all seen them. The "Feeling Sick? Stay Home!" signs, the step-by-step instructions on how to wash our hands (in case you didn't know, it's a highly complicated process) in every on-campus bathroom, and my personal favorite the dancing cartoon germs decorating the College's health poster that make the Mucinex characters look like Santa Claus.
While very few of us, upon seeing Mr. Mucus, immediately turn home the minute we sense a sneeze coming on, there is no doubting the substantial effect a certain pig-related illness has had on our campus in recent months.
Public health hysteria, however, is not a new trend. Many people forget that this is not the first time the campus climate has been altered by the flu. The Spanish flu, a particularly virulent flu strain, also dramatically changed life on campus in 1918. And, while that flu killed substantially more people than swine flu has so far, the community reaction to both illnesses has been remarkably similar.
According to a 2005 Concord Monitor article, "The 1918 influenza killed between 20 million and 50 million people worldwide, killing more U.S. citizens than all of the country's wars put together."
At Dartmouth, the Spanish flu claimed the lives of 21 students and faculty members, causing the College to cease all academic functions for two weeks until administrators could better determine how to suppress the virus, according to a 1918 Dartmouth Alumni Magazine article.
The pandemic created a climate of fear among many at the College.
A letter by a Dartmouth student, Clifford B. Orr '22, to his parents from September 1918 read, "One freshman had died, and I don't know how many soldiers. Chapel has been cut out, the movies closed, and Dartmouth night which was to be held next Monday to celebrate the College's 150th birthday has been canceled ... the epidemic has killed what little college life there was."
Director of the College Health Services John Turco said he believes that the lack of infrastructure in place to respond to pandemics contributed to the fearsurrounding the Spanish flu.
"There was certainly no organized central government approach in 1918 like there is now," Turco said. "They didn't understand the nuances of the illness."
There were some, of course, who did not take the threat as seriously: The pandemic brought into popularity an old rhyme that students would sing around campus. According to a 1918 Dartmouth Alumni Magazine article, it went "I had a little bird and his name was Enza/ I opened up the cage and in-flew-enza."
Swine flu, though it has not had the devestating effects of Spanish flu, has elicited similar responses from the campus.
"There were some people who were frightened, and there were some people who thought [swine flu] was totally overblown," Turco said.
In response to the outbreak, the College dramatically increased reminders to students to maintain hygienic practices and canceled the Mexico Language Study Abroad program midway through its duration.
Meghan O'Brien '10 said that some students have grown tired of these constant hygiene notices from the College.
"I think the students thought it was exaggerated, with the blitzes from health services and all the signs on the doors saying, Don't go to class if you're sick,'" she said.
Several groups on campus, including Sigma Delta sorority, incorporated swine flu into social events.
"Basically before you walked into the door we had this huge plastic fake syringe that you got shot with before you could enter," O'Brien, a member of Sigma Delt, said. "There were also masks and gloves available. It wasn't trying to poke fun at anybody that had it, but it was just trying to lift spirits because, at that point, people were at Dick's House not having luck getting medicine and not knowing what to do."
Despite the fear that spread surrounding swine flue, however, O'Brien said that she didn't think that the scare was enough to cause students to completely change their regular habits.
"Even if you are scared of getting it, [you're] not going to skip class, [you're] not going to not go to Collis," she said. "You're not going to stop your daily routine just because of swine flu."
In the end, regardless of whether you're the person asking people to cough on you so you can catch swine flu, or the one who has made a lot of friends in the McLaughlin cluster solely because of its proximity to Dick's House, you are a part of history repeating itself at Dartmouth with respect to worldwide health scares.
"This has been a continuum," Turco said. "I think what [we're] trying to institute into these people's minds is to change their behavior and say that we are going to continue to have these outbreaks. A lot of people have died, but we tend to have short memories."
