Zombies and infections have been in the news at MVCC this past semester. This week, World War Z has evolved into World War M. Human buttons are quickly being replaced by zombie buttons. Students and staff are reporting their zombie status to the World War M site. I know that this is just a game but it makes me wonder if our country has ever faced a serious epidemic or even worse, a pandemic? I did some research and found that the United States experienced a serious pandemic in 1918-1919. The virus caused between 20-40 million deaths worldwide. It infected over 28% of the U.S. population and almost 700,000 Americans died from the flu during this time period. Most of the victims were between the ages of 20 and 40. The medical profession had no idea how to treat the disease. So even though World War Z is fiction, the 1918 Pandemic proves that “truth is stranger than fiction.”
MVCC Catalog Pandemic
Another great source of information is the Chicago Tribune Historical database. Enter your MV Connect and Blackboard user name and password to experience how Chicago reacted to the pandemic.