400,000 people attend massive outdoor concert during deadly pandemic that killed up to 4 million people!

[Boatswain2PA]

https://nypost.com/2020/05/16/why-life-went-on-as-normal-during-the-killer-pandemic-of-1969/

As of today, about 1.15 million have died of SARS-COV-19.

Some quotes from the article

"But schools were not shut down nationwide, other than a few dozen because of too many sick teachers. Face masks weren’t required or even common. Though Woodstock was not held during the peak months of the H3N2 pandemic (the first wave ended by early March 1969, and it didn’t flare up again until November of that year), the festival went ahead when the virus was still active and had no known cure."

"Both pandemics didn’t spare the rich and famous — Hitchcock actress Tallulah Bankhead and former CIA Director Allen Dulles succumbed to H3N2, while COVID-19 has taken the lives of singer-songwriter John Prine and playwright Terrence McNally, among others. President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey both fell ill from H3N2 and recovered...."

"

“It was like the pandemic hadn’t even happened if you look for it in history books,” he said. “I am still shocked at how differently people addressed — or maybe even ignored it — in 1968 compared to 2020.”

The virus rarely made front-page news. A 1968 story in the Associated Press warned that deaths caused by the Hong Kong flu “more than doubled across the nation in the third week of December.” But the story was buried on Page 24. The New York Post didn’t publish any stories about the pandemic in 1968, and in 1969, coverage was mostly minor, like reports of newly married couples delaying honeymoons because of the virus and the Yonkers police force calling in sick with the Hong Kong flu during wage negotiations....

It may seem like the world responded to the 1968 pandemic with a shrug of indifference, but the different approaches may be down to a generational divide......being taught as a child of the ’60s that “getting viruses ultimately strengthened one’s immune system. One of my most vivid memories is of a chickenpox party. The idea was that you should get it and get it over with when you are young.”

Even with those relaxed ideas about viruses, the Hong Kong flu caught the world by surprise. It was different from previous pandemics because of how fast it spread, thanks largely to increased international air travel.

Much of our current thinking about infectious diseases in the modern era changed because of the SARS outbreak of 2003, which “scared the hell out of many people,” said Poling. “It’s the first time I recall people wearing masks and trying to distance themselves from others, particularly in situations where someone might cough or sneeze.”....

But the differences between how the world responded to two pandemics, separated by 50 years, is more complicated than any single explanation.

“If I were 48 in 1968, I would have most likely served in World War II,” said Moir. “I would have had a little brother who served in Korea, and possibly might have a son or daughter fighting in Vietnam.” Death, he said, was a bigger and in some ways more accepted part of American life."

This last paragraph strikes me tonight as I got off a shift where I saw two young adults who came to the ED with what could most accurately called "boo-boos".  One guy had his thumb, hand, and distal forearm wrapped in thick kerlex and ace bandage for a "bad" thumb laceration that bled so much that this mid-twenty year old adult male with full beard told me that he "got weak and a little dizzy from the blood loss."  

After unwrapping enough dressing to cure a mummy, I found a boo-boo.  Literally, a 1 cm boo-boo that, once I got past the patient's extreme response to minimal stimulation, I was able to apply a tiny big of dermabond to and sent home.

Then it happened again.  A patient nicked the little bit of skin next to her thumbnail with a paring knife and was demanding sutures.

Why would 400,000 people went to a concert in the middle of a pandemic 50 years ago, but people come to the ED for boo-boo's today?

  

 

 

 

 

[MediMike]

2 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

This last paragraph strikes me tonight as I got off a shift where I saw two young adults who came to the ED with what could most accurately called "boo-boos".  One guy had his thumb, hand, and distal forearm wrapped in thick kerlex and ace bandage for a "bad" thumb laceration that bled so much that this mid-twenty year old adult male with full beard told me that he "got weak and a little dizzy from the blood loss."  

After unwrapping enough dressing to cure a mummy, I found a boo-boo.  Literally, a 1 cm boo-boo that, once I got past the patient's extreme response to minimal stimulation, I was able to apply a tiny big of dermabond to and sent home.

Then it happened again.  A patient nicked the little bit of skin next to her thumbnail with a paring knife and was demanding sutures.

Why would 400,000 people went to a concert in the middle of a pandemic 50 years ago, but people come to the ED for boo-boo's today?

 

Tough question right? Are you asking what happened to the emotional/physical fortitude during the generational divide? I have no answer as to why individuals are more likely to come to the ED for minor complaints...other than to make your productivity bonus better? Crank out those 4's/5's before you head home?

But if you want to talk about the 1968 H3N2 virus I think you can factor in a significant lower degree of health literacy during that time frame, less knowledge of viral transmission and likely more of a c'est la vie approach to it.  So 100,000 of them died in the U.S., we're approaching 2.5x that number now.  How many of them would have died if they had taken similar precautions to what our public health agencies are suggesting now?

Touting the fact that people didn't take actions to prevent spread of a virus and subsequently 100k people are dead isn't a very good platform to work from I don't think.

[TheFatMan]

Well, for one, this occurred during a quiet time in the pandemic - people likely thought it was over. https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/192/2/233/856805

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

this trope that younger people are all lazy and weak, and the older generation is so stoic and smart. It’s the older generation I find that make up the majority of “worries well” patients and really waste my time with their vague complaints since they actually require work up due to age. Young people are at least an easy dispo. 

 

[TheFatMan]

5 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Why would 400,000 people went to a concert in the middle of a pandemic 50 years ago, but people come to the ED for boo-boo's today?

A. They wanted to get high and listen to music. That doesn't make them brave.

B. I don't see the connection. I'm sure if an ER existed back then people would have been going for trivial things then as well.

[Boatswain2PA]

3 hours ago, MediMike said:

Crank out those 4's/5's before you head home?

Yeah, that's always nice!

4 hours ago, MediMike said:

Touting the fact that people didn't take actions to prevent spread of a virus and subsequently 100k people are dead isn't a very good platform to work from I don't think.

 

3 hours ago, TheFatMan said:

Well, for one, this occurred during a quiet time in the pandemic - people likely thought it was over.

I think it's more likely that people #1) took illness, and therefore death,  more in stride as a part of life, and therefore #2) the media didn't sensationalize/hyperbolize the pandemic.  As noted in the OP, the media would barely report news about the pandemic.  There wasn't the sensational daily "death clock" to stir up fears (righteous fears or not).

Maybe it was also because the news of the pandemic had to compete with other more sensational news coming from the war, similar to what happened with the Spanish Flu an WWI (Although the Wilson administration trampled the first amendment by actively silencing reporting of the pandemic, and the media went along with him on this...the opposite of what we are seeing today).

 

57 minutes ago, TheFatMan said:

I'm sure if an ER existed back then people would have been going for trivial things then as well

There were ERs, but people usually had to pay for their care (with insurance typically covering catastrophic incidences).  If you went to the ED for a boo-boo, you paid cash for your visit.  I"m sure that kept a lot of stupid stuff out.

[CAAdmission]

I have fear that we are raising a helpless generation. Parents thought they were doing kids a favor by shielding them from any adversity. As a result, there are a lot of adults who never escaped childhood, have no resilience, and have no capacity for processing negative emotions. 

[Boatswain2PA]

44 minutes ago, CJAdmission said:

I have fear that we are raising a helpless generation. Parents thought they were doing kids a favor by shielding them from any adversity. As a result, there are a lot of adults who never escaped childhood, have no resilience, and have no capacity for processing negative emotions. 

Worse yet, some have strong negative emotions anytime they are confronted with an opinion discordant with their own beliefs, and since they have no capacity for processing those negative emotions, they act out in socially abhorrent ways (such as serial downvoting/sniping we see a few folks doing here).

If enough of these folks come together we get the rioting that we have seen lately. 

[mgriffiths]

6 hours ago, mcclane said:

Please stop posting daily journalism articles from your Facebook feed. This is not your personal social network.

good grief mcclane...we get it...you don't like Boatswain2PA.  It's an interesting article, people are responding making for conversation.  Cut it out...

 

Edit: oh, and you've missed some of Boatswain2PA's posts today to downvote...

Edited October 27, 2020 by mgriffiths

[mmiller3]

7 hours ago, mcclane said:

Please stop posting daily journalism articles from your Facebook feed. This is not your personal social network.

What is the beef between you two?

[EMEDPA]

1 minute ago, mmiller3 said:

What is the beef between you two?

 

[Boatswain2PA]

29 minutes ago, mmiller3 said:

What is the beef between you two?

I don't know, he just stalks me.  Kinda creepy, but I just ignore it.

[MediMike]

5 hours ago, CJAdmission said:

I have fear that we are raising a helpless generation. Parents thought they were doing kids a favor by shielding them from any adversity. As a result, there are a lot of adults who never escaped childhood, have no resilience, and have no capacity for processing negative emotions. 

Willing to bet every generation has felt this way. 

This idea that the previous generations were so well adjusted is completely wrong. The incidence of depression, substance abuse, spousal and child abuse were still high, the reporting just wasn't there. Because it was accepted. You couldn't tell someone you were depressed because that would make you weak. Doesn't mean these individuals didn't suffer. 

4 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Worse yet, some have strong negative emotions anytime they are confronted with an opinion discordant with their own beliefs, and since they have no capacity for processing those negative emotions, they act out in socially abhorrent ways (such as serial downvoting/sniping we see a few folks doing here).

If enough of these folks come together we get the rioting that we have seen lately. 

I don't think people are rioting because of a difference of opinion...

[EMEDPA]

19 minutes ago, MediMike said:

 

I don't think people are rioting because of a difference of opinion...

tacos are better than pumpkin spice lattes!!!!  You disagree????

Let's burn down the neighborhood!

[MediMike]

3 minutes ago, EMEDPA said:

tacos are better than pumpkin spice lattes!!!!  You disagree????

Let's burn down the neighborhood!

I mean...what kind of tacos?

[ANESMCR]

5 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Worse yet, some have strong negative emotions anytime they are confronted with an opinion discordant with their own beliefs, and since they have no capacity for processing those negative emotions, they act out in socially abhorrent ways (such as serial downvoting/sniping we see a few folks doing here).

If enough of these folks come together we get the rioting that we have seen lately. 

Lmao pot meet kettle. 

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5397700002

yeah, it’s just rioters from the liberal snowflake generation that can’t deal.

[CAAdmission]

1 hour ago, MediMike said:

Willing to bet every generation has felt this way. 

This idea that the previous generations were so well adjusted is completely wrong. The incidence of depression, substance abuse, spousal and child abuse were still high, the reporting just wasn't there. Because it was accepted. You couldn't tell someone you were depressed because that would make you weak. Doesn't mean these individuals didn't suffer. 

That may be, but this is different that 'those damn kids and their rock and roll music!" Something is demonstrably different. I don't know a single, solitary soul that ever cried over election results. I know people that said they were pissed, or disappointed, but life went on.

Now, people are crushed and take time off work. Donald Trump is an actual Hitler, a fascist. His election heralded the utter downfall of minorities, Jews, and the LGBT community. Headlines state his re-election means the end of democracy. 

This crap is off the hook. 

17 minutes ago, LT_Oneal_PAC said:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5397700002

yeah, it’s just rioters from the liberal snowflake generation that can’t deal.

I know you are citing cases where people drove into a crowd unprovoked, and that's just plain evil/mental illness. But a lot of what the press picks up is that people are in a car, they get surrounded by a mob, and drive through it. If I'm in a car with my family and we get surrounded and people start banging on the car and making threats, I'm sorry, but the medical examiner is going to have to sort out the after effects. 

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

25 minutes ago, CJAdmission said:

That may be, but this is different that 'those damn kids and their rock and roll music!" Something is demonstrably different. I don't know a single, solitary soul that ever cried over election results. I know people that said they were pissed, or disappointed, but life went on.

Now, people are crushed and take time off work. Donald Trump is an actual Hitler, a fascist. His election heralded the utter downfall of minorities, Jews, and the LGBT community. Headlines state his re-election means the end of democracy. 

This crap is off the hook. 

I know you are citing cases where people drove into a crowd unprovoked, and that's just plain evil/mental illness. But a lot of what the press picks up is that people are in a car, they get surrounded by a mob, and drive through it. If I'm in a car with my family and we get surrounded and people start banging on the car and making threats, I'm sorry, but the medical examiner is going to have to sort out the after effects. 

So many baby boomers said Obama was literally the Antichrist. That he didn’t have a right to be president and wanted to see his birth certificate (spurred on by the current president), Biden has a secret island where he drinks children’s blood and sodomizes babies. All generations have their snowflakes and crazies. It’s not just millennials and gen z. Every generation thought the next gen was demonstrably different.

[CAAdmission]

30 minutes ago, LT_Oneal_PAC said:

Every generation thought the next gen was demonstrably different.

Yeah, but don't you think things are getting worse? You can't compare Congress today to 30 years ago. There's something in the water. 

My conspiracy theory is that it has something to do with peanut allergies. No one ever even heard of a kid with peanut allergies when I was a kid. 

[EMEDPA]

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iba-1&hsimp=yhs-1&hspart=iba&p=gran+torino+get+off+my+lawn#id=1&vid=9413c130524b18680ac2723660b4b450&action=click

[MediMike]

17 minutes ago, CJAdmission said:

Yeah, but don't you think things are getting worse? You can't compare Congress today to 30 years ago. There's something in the water. 

My conspiracy theory is that it has something to do with peanut allergies. No one ever even heard of a kid with peanut allergies when I was a kid. 

That's because they all died.

But yes. Things are more and more polarized these days. Like we've talked about a hundred times on this forum, and has been demonstrated about that many times, people can barely have a quasi-civil conversation.

I feel like it really kicked into overdrive in the early 2000s with the super rise of network "news" (I'm looking at you Faux), coupled with the "If you don't stand behind our troops stand in front of them" along with the God Guns and Gays platform. These issues became so incredibly divisive that the wounds have never healed and only continue to fester. But being the Greenie-Weenie-Tree-Hugging-Vegan-Hippie-Liberal that I am of course I'd think that...

Edited October 28, 2020 by MediMike

[CAAdmission]

17 minutes ago, MediMike said:

I feel like it really kicked into overdrive in the early 2000s with the super rise of network "news" 

I like to blame social media. Suddenly every imbecile on earth has a bully pulpit (starting with celebutards). 

[TheFatMan]

I mean...people were so upset that the governor of Michigan so arrogantly wanted them to stay alive that they devised a plot to kidnap her. Must have been spoiled millennials, because their coping ability and problem solving skills aren'treally on par with what I would expect from literally any other generation.

[CAAdmission]

16 minutes ago, TheFatMan said:

I mean...people were so upset that the governor of Michigan so arrogantly wanted them to stay alive that they devised a plot to kidnap her. Must have been spoiled millennials, because their coping ability and problem solving skills aren'treally on par with what I would expect from literally any other generation.

People get upset when elected officials make an end run around Constitutional limits placed on their authority. A governor might need to declare a state of emergency in the face of a developing situation until further info can be gathered. Months in, governors need to stop making unilateral decisions and involve the legislature. That's not happening in some states. 

Constitutional rights don't just evaporate in the face of an emergency.