Epidemics: Approaching a Disaster

In Washington, President Lyndon B. was bedded down with it — or something suspiciously resembling it. In Chicago, Mayor Richard J. Daley was just recovering from it. In Hollywood, Actress Natalie Wood was felled by it while shooting a $3,000,000 film. In Seattle, a pair of twin baby orangutans were placed in isolation when they came down with its symptoms. With jet-age speed A2-Hong Kong-68, more commonly known as “Hong Kong flu,” spanned the nation last week, respecting neither station nor species.

With millions of Americans already victimized by the epidemic, the American Red Cross declared a “disaster situation.” Federal health authorities, warning that the worst is yet to come, predicted that the peak should be reached around New Year’s Day or mid-January. Before the virus has run its course, perhaps 30 million citizens will have been abed with coughs, chills, fever, and general aches and pains.

Johnson, who entered Bethesda Naval Hospital with a temperature of 101.6, was one of many notables felled by the virus. Others: Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Mamie Eisenhower, Senator Edmund Muskie, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Earle Wheeler, and White House National Security Adviser Walt Rostow. Mayors seemed susceptible; Atlanta’s Ivan Allen Jr. and Boston’s Kevin White joined Daley on the sick list.

For most people, the flu means a miserable few days in bed. To the elderly and those suffering from chronic heart or respiratory diseases, it can be a prelude to fatal complications. Last week some 213 deaths in the U.S. were at tributed to the disease and accompanying complications. To try to protect the aged and infirm, seven national drug firms have produced 17 million doses of vaccine that are now being distributed across the country. Among the first vaccinated: former President Harry Truman, 84.

The A2 strain, a biological brother to a similar virus dubbed “Asian flu” when it affected 20 million in the U.S. in 1957, turned up last July in Central China. Travelers quickly carried it to Hong Kong, where it was labeled “Mao flu” as 500,000 Crown Colony residents were infected. The worldwide epidemic had begun (TIME, Sept. 27). The flu spread to Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, where King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit were among those affected. Authorities in the Soviet Union started vaccinating between 50% and 70% of Russia’s urban population.

Flu City. After its first confirmed appearance in the U.S.—in Needles, Calif., last November—the disease spread to Denver, paused, then galloped wildly across the country. According to officials of the National Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, there have been widespread outbreaks of A2 in 22 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; regional outbreaks in ten states; isolated outbreaks in 14 states; and individual cases in three. Nevada is the only state that has not yet reported a single case of the virus.

While the C.D.C. notes that there is no discernible pattern to the epidemic’s course, the northeast has been hit hardest. So far, 800,000 New York City residents have been stricken, and health authorities expect the figure to double. Complicating matters was a disastrously timed strike of fuel-oil delivery truck drivers. At week’s end, upwards of 250,000 New Yorkers were shivering in heatless homes and apartments, prime targets for the disease.

Other major cities were also reeling under the influence of the Oriental bug. In Chicago, 400,000 residents have come down with the ailment, including Police Superintendent James B. Conlisk Jr. Los Angeles reports 500,000 victims so far, and some health authorities expect more than 4,000,000 to fall ill. Boston reports an estimated 140,000 victims. In Philadelphia, officials predict that upwards of 500,000 residents either now have the disease or will soon get it. None of the major cities, however, reported serious curtailments of essential governmental services.

On Broadway, The Man in the Glass Booth closed for four days when Donald Pleasence, the star, was bedridden. In Boston, Angela Lansbury missed seven performances as leading lady in Dear World. Erich Leinsdorf, director of the Boston Symphony, was forced to cancel weekend concerts, and Richard Cardinal Gushing was briefly absent from his pulpit.

In sports, the Cincinnati Royals professional basketball team lost Star Player Jerry Lucas for four games but managed to win three of them anyway. The San Francisco Warriors were less lucky. With seven of their twelve players out, they lost five games in a row. Everywhere, colleges closed early for the Christmas recess either because of absenteeism or to keep the infection from spreading. At Barat College of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Ill., 400 of the 600 girls were taken ill. In Louisville, nursing homes planned to turn away Christmas carolers for fear that every “tralala” might spread the virus.

Separate Beds. Though there was not enough vaccine to go around, there was no shortage of home remedies. Physicians suggested aspirin, liquids and bed rest. But New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Edward O’Rourke noted that one of his staff prescribed chicken soup while another recommended beer and martinis. Apparently on the ground that any sort of fatigue lowers resistance, Hong Kong Herbalist Yiu Kam-shing declared: “I advise married couples to sleep in separate beds.”

Despite a doubling or even trebling of absenteeism, most businesses and industries got along by reshuffling priorities and scheduling overtime for hale personnel. Though druggists reported a bonanza in sales of antihistamines, the A2 virus has left most retailers feeling ill. Crowds of holiday shoppers have been thinned. Another factor in the sales slump, though, may be the 10% federal surtax, which is belatedly having an impact on consumer buying. In New York City, business in some large stores was running as much as 10% behind last year’s Christmas season. Filene’s in Boston, J. L. Hudson’s in Detroit, Macy’s in San Francisco, all reported reduced across-the-counter sales.

In Washington, the federal establishment was almost as hard hit as the retailers, with 15% of the government’s 300,000 employees out with the flu. The Bureau of Internal Revenue announced that it too was plagued by severe absenteeism. But it hastened to offer reassurances. When the time comes next spring, said IRS, the flu should be just a memory, and there should be no delays in processing income tax returns or tracking down delinquents.