Full Citation

Title: Racial Disparities in Mortality During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in United States Cities

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 1156

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ISSN:

DOI: 10.18128/MPC2020-10

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Abstract: The 1918 influenza pandemic stands out for its extreme virulence and unusual age pattern of mortality. Here, we aim to elevate a third unusual feature of its course through United States cities to the same level of scientific prominence: the pandemic produced strikingly small racial disparities in mortality, against a backdrop of extreme racial inequality in the era. We provide the most complete account of racial disparities in influenza and pneumonia mortality in U.S. cities in 1918, showing that they were almost uniformly small. We also advance and evaluate four hypotheses as to why racial disparities in the 1918-1919 pandemic were so small relative to those in proximate years. In particular, we assess hypotheses related to socio-demographic characteristics like segregation, city-level implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions, racial differences in exposure to the 1918 herald wave, and racial differences in early-life exposures to other influenza strains that could have resulted in differences in immunological vulnerability to the 1918 flu. The results suggest the importance of considering in depth the interactions between the natural history of a particular microbial agent and the social history of the populations it infects.

Url: https://doi.org/10.18128/MPC2020-10

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Authors: Eiermann, Martin; Wrigley-Field, Elizabeth; Boen, Courtney; Feigenbaum, James; Helgertz, Jonas; Hernandez, Elaine; Muller, Christopher

Periodical (Full): Social Science Building

Issue:

Volume: 267

Pages: 19

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