The Spanish Flu reached Moose Jaw in the first week of October, 1918. People began dying. The ‘infection reservoir,’ the active cases, grew exponentially. Sick returning solders stayed at the armoury and spread the flu.
The Turnbull House. SubmittedDr. Turnbull lived in this house, now Jones Funeral Home. Dr. Turnbull was the Moose Jaw and District Medical Officer in October 1918 and had complete control over what was done to stem the spread of Spanish Flu. After consultations, action was taken.
The military district sent soldiers home directly and stopped housing them at the armoury. Their discharge papers would be mailed to them.
Reducing the ‘infection reservoir,’ what we call the active case count, was critical. Dr. Turnbull ordered all gathering places closed until further notice. That meant schools, places of worship, pool halls and so on, were closed. Dr. Turnbull converted Prince Arthur School and the hotel on the South Hill into hospitals. He asked for volunteers to work with the sick and for people to wear masks and not gather.
The WWI Armistice celebrations saw thousands of people jam Moose Jaw streets in the second week of November. Dr. Turnbull was terrified, certain another outbreak of Flu would follow. It didn’t. The five weeks of closure saw the worst pass. The estimated active cases were down (there were no tests for the flu in 1918), the infection reservoir shrank. Dr. Turnbull re-opened schools, pool halls, places of worship, gathering places and closed one ‘relief’ hospital. People continued to die but in much smaller numbers and those deaths were usually within the same family.
One hundred and two years ago, the pioneers of Moose Jaw discovered, by accident, shrinking active cases shrank the infection reservoir, the source of new infections.
Lesson from history: 2020 daily COVID infections run about 10 per cent of the active case count. To control COVID-19, reduce the number of active cases.
