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{"id":26862,"date":"2023-06-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=26862"},"modified":"2024-11-12T13:27:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T18:27:29","slug":"revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/06\/08\/revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealing Data: Mortality in Mexico City during the 1890 Influenza Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Circulating Now<em> welcomes guest bloggers E. Thomas Ewing, PhD, and Sydney Murphy from Virginia Tech to share their research into the reporting around Mortality rates in Mexico City during the 1890 influenza epidemic.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On February 12, 1890, during a meeting of the Academy of Medicine of Mexico, physicians reported on influenza cases among their patients. One speaker, Semeleder, described a range of symptoms among the sixty or more patients he observed in recent weeks. Most cases resulted in a full recovery, but some patients who acted \u201ccarelessly\u201d experienced \u201cmore severe symptoms.\u201d The President of the Academy, Chacon, stated that while the disease spread quickly and extensively, most people fully recovered, except those with underlying health conditions, such as cardiac disease. Some speakers, including Lavista and Olvera, had been sick themselves, and contributed descriptions of their own symptoms to this discussion. A summary of this meeting\u00a0 was published in <a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.nlm.nih.gov\/permalink\/01NLM_INST\/1o1phhn\/alma9948223406676\"><em>Gaceta M\u00e9dica de M\u00e9xico<\/em><\/a> (vol. 25, No, 6, March 15, 1890, pp. 115-120), one of many international medical journals available in the National Library of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"26868\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/06\/08\/revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic\/weekly-deaths-1890\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?fit=624%2C385&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"624,385\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Weekly Deaths, 1890\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?fit=300%2C185&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?fit=624%2C385&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-26868 size-full\" title=\"Weekly Deaths, Mexico City, January to March, 1890. The weekly totals are derived from newspapers which reported during the epidemic.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?resize=624%2C385&ssl=1\" alt=\"A bar graph showing how mortality rates spiked in the first two weeks of February 1890 to double the 1889 levels.\" width=\"624\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?w=624&ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/weekly-deaths-1890.png?resize=300%2C185&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a>The toll of the influenza epidemic in Mexico City is revealed by the growing number of deaths in early 1890. The weekly totals are derived from newspapers which reported during the epidemic. During the first four weeks of 1890, total deaths were very similar to the average of 285 recorded in the previous, non-epidemic, year. During the week ending February 2, however, total deaths increased by almost 50%, from 400 to more than 600. The number decreased slightly the following week, but still remained above the average recorded in the previous year. The first five weeks of 1890 recorded more than two thousand deaths, an increase of nearly 50% over the same period in 1889. This chart also illustrates how quickly the death rate decreased during February, with weekly totals receding almost to the averages recorded the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>This data provides an important perspective on the discussion at the Academy of Medicine on February 12, 1890, which revealed how medical professionals, when confronted by a sudden outbreak of a new disease, used the space of a professional meeting to share observations and discuss issues such as diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. By the time this professional association discussed the emerging threat of epidemic influenza, however, the death rate had already peaked, and would continue to decline for the rest of February. This essay asks about the implications of health professionals debating the severity of an epidemic at a time when the worst outcomes of the disease outbreak had already happened.<\/p>\n<p>This research builds upon previous efforts to measure the mortality associated with the so-called Russian influenza in <a href=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/07\/14\/bertillons-statistical-analysis-of-the-1889-1890-influenza-epidemic\/\">Paris<\/a>, France, and <a href=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2018\/11\/15\/revealing-data-measuring-mortality-during-an-epidemic\/\">other European cities<\/a>.\u00a0 Although the death toll from the 1889\u20131892 epidemic was below the remarkable totals associated with both the 1918 influenza epidemic and COVID-19 in 2020, the Russian influenza provides useful insights into the ways that medical experts and public media responded to a widespread disease outbreak and the threat of increased mortality. Physicians and reporters in early 1890 faced questions similar to those posed in the early stages of COVID-19: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/coronavirus-live-updates\/2020\/03\/29\/823517467\/fauci-estimates-that-100-000-to-200-000-americans-could-die-from-the-coronavirus\">how many would be infected and how many would die<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>The first reports of a European epidemic appeared in Mexican newspapers in early December, which meant that medical professionals had more than a month of warning prior to the disease first appearing in Latin America. The Academy of Medicine initially discussed the epidemic in the second week of January. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558075bf7d1e63c9fea1a45b?pagina=558a34927d1ed64f16a7c9c7\"><em>El Tiempo<\/em><\/a> (January 12, 1890), physicians speaking at this meeting predicted that the climate and altitude of Mexico City meant that the disease would not become epidemic, in contrast to the cold and humid conditions which caused the disease\u2019s \u201cmalignant character\u201d when it began in Europe. Perhaps reflecting this perception that the pandemic was not a threat to Mexico, the journal <em>Gaceta M\u00e9dica de M\u00e9xico<\/em> did not include this discussion in the summary of the January meetings (Vol. 25, No. 5, March 1, 1890, p. 95).<\/p>\n<p>In early February 1890, newspapers began to report on an alarming increase in deaths in Mexico City. <em>El Tiempo<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558075bf7d1e63c9fea1a45b?pagina=558a34927d1ed64f16a7d236\">February 1, 1890<\/a>) declared a \u201clamentable\u201d increase in mortality during the past week. <em>La Patria<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558075be7d1e63c9fea1a3a7?pagina=558a34ec7d1ed64f16adbf4c\">February 6, 1890<\/a>) and <em>El Tiempo<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a34927d1ed64f16a7d40d?resultado=68&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">February 7, 1890<\/a>) asked how the health council planned to respond to the sudden increase in deaths.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26874\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26874\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"26874\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/06\/08\/revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic\/municipio-libre-1890jan28p3-mortality-table\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?fit=980%2C1200&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"980,1200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>El Municipio Libre daily report on deaths in Mexico City, January 28, 1890.<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?fit=245%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?fit=836%2C1024&ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-26874\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?resize=400%2C490&ssl=1\" alt=\"A printed table in a newspaper listing 62 names with columns headed: Nombres, Patria, Edad, Estado. Enfermedad, Habitacion, and Panteon.\" width=\"400\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?resize=836%2C1024&ssl=1 836w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?resize=245%2C300&ssl=1 245w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?resize=768%2C940&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?resize=840%2C1029&ssl=1 840w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890Jan28p3-Mortality-Table.jpg?w=980&ssl=1 980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26874\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>El Municipio Libre<\/em> daily report on deaths in Mexico City, January 28, 1890.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558075be7d1e63c9fea1a374?pagina=558a32f47d1ed64f168d8893\"><em>Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>El Municipio Libre<\/em> regularly provided daily reports on deaths in Mexico City. In January 1890, these reports provided a detailed listing of individuals by name, place of birth, age, marital status, cause of death, place of residence, and cemetery. These granular accounts make it possible to trace the steady increase in deaths during the first weeks of the new year and then the sudden increase toward the end of the month as the epidemic reached the capital city. The <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558075be7d1e63c9fea1a374?pagina=558a32f47d1ed64f168d8893\">report published on January 28<\/a>, for example, identified 23 deaths from pneumonia, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases, accounting for one-third of the total 66 deaths. None of the deaths were attributed to influenza, even though the day\u2019s total was 50% higher than the average for non-pandemic years. For the next two weeks, when death totals reached the highest levels, <em>El Municipio Libre<\/em> did not publish daily reports (and did not explain this omission). On February 9, 1890, <em>El Municipio Libre<\/em> resumed <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a32f47d1ed64f168d9a8d?resultado=72&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">daily mortality reports<\/a>, with 81 deaths, almost twice the average from the beginning of the year, reported for February 7, 1890.<\/p>\n<p>The absence of daily reports was criticized by other newspapers, such as <em>La Patria<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a34ec7d1ed64f16adc0e8?resultado=81&tipo=pagina&intPagina=2&palabras=mortalidad\">February 12, 1890<\/a>, which cited rumors that the government had prohibited publication because the mortality was so high that it might cause panic. The English-language newspaper, <em>The Two Republics<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558a35e67d1ed64f16bf56b1?intPagina=2&tipo=pagina&palabras=death&anio=1890&mes=02&dia=08\">commented<\/a> on February 8 that it could only guess why these reports had been omitted, but \u201cwe are sure that less anxiety would be caused by making known the large increase in the death rate than in suppressing the facts.\u201d On February 13, <em>Universal Diario de la Ma\u00f1ana<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a36b97d1ed64f16ccceeb?resultado=84&tipo=pagina&intPagina=2&palabras=mortalidad\">praised<\/a> the authorities for withholding reports of very high death numbers as a prudent strategy to prevent alarming the public. On February 14, <em>El Nacional<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a343b7d1ed64f16a26546?resultado=93&tipo=pagina&intPagina=2&palabras=mortalidad\">declared<\/a> that it was better for the public to know the truth than to be lulled into complacency if death reports were withheld by municipal authorities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"26883\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/06\/08\/revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic\/deaths-february-1890\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?fit=624%2C333&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"624,333\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Mexico City: Deaths, February 1890\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?fit=300%2C160&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?fit=624%2C333&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-26883 size-full\" title=\"Mexico City: Deaths, February 1890. The graph reveals very high mortality in the first week of February and then a steady decrease back to normal levels\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?resize=624%2C333&ssl=1\" alt=\"A bar chart of daily deaths indicating also the percentage attributed to pulmonary issues, with deaths and percentages peaking between the 3rd and 8th of February, 1890. \" width=\"624\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?w=624&ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Deaths-February-1890.png?resize=300%2C160&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a>The most detailed report on daily mortality in February appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/publicacion\/visualizar\/558a35e87d1ed64f16bf6c4f?intPagina=4&tipo=pagina&palabras=grippe&anio=1890&mes=03&dia=23\"><em>The Two Republics<\/em><\/a> on March 23, 1890. The graph above reveals the very high mortality in the first week of February and then a steady decrease back to normal levels. This data table also illustrates how the days with the remarkably high mortality also recorded the highest proportions of deaths from respiratory illness.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to reporting numbers, newspapers also published vivid illustrations of the impact of the epidemic. <em>El Tiempo<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a34927d1ed64f16a7d4e0?resultado=73&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">reported<\/a> on February 9, 1890 that nearly forty coffins were stacked in a mortuary awaiting transport to cemeteries for burial. On the same day<em>, La Voz de M\u00e9xico<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a37867d1ed64f16d9d378?resultado=75&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">reported<\/a> that the shortage of coffins to bury the growing number of dead was leading to sharp increases in prices. The coffin shortage, as a vivid example of excessive deaths, was republished in United States newspapers. On February 20, more than a week later, the <em>Evening Star<\/em> (Washington, DC) cited \u201cprivate letters\u201d from \u201cAmerican residents of the Mexican capital\u201d who <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn83045462\/1890-02-20\/ed-1\/seq-1\/\">stated<\/a> that the \u201ctruly terrible\u201d results of the influenza meant that many bodies were buried without coffins. This same report appeared in numerous American newspapers in the two weeks that followed as part of global reporting on this pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>By the second week of February, daily death totals began to decrease. On February 10, <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a32f47d1ed64f168d9af1?resultado=77&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">only 61 deaths were reported<\/a> by <em>El Municipio Libre<\/em>, a decrease of 25% from the previous day\u2019s report. On February 15, 1890, <em>El Siglo Diez y Nueve<\/em> reported that just 47 deaths confirmed that the epidemic was <a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a3e6a7d1ed64f1717ebc6?resultado=100&tipo=pagina&intPagina=2&palabras=mortalidad\">notably declining<\/a>. On February 15, 1890, <em>El Tiempo<\/em> declared that 47 deaths was a normal level and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a34927d1ed64f16a7d73b?resultado=103&tipo=pagina&intPagina=3&palabras=mortalidad\">we can calm down now<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 After a week of stable or declining daily totals, <em>El Nacional<\/em> declared on\u00a0 February 22, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hndm.iib.unam.mx\/consulta\/resultados\/visualizar\/558a343b7d1ed64f16a268de?resultado=135&tipo=pagina&intPagina=5&palabras=mortalidad\">mortality is decreasing and we are celebrating<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This research explores a historical moment in ways informed by the recent experience of the global COVID-19 pandemic by examining the ways that health experts and media outlets respond to growing evidence of a health crisis. As physicians meeting at the Academy of Medicine acknowledged the spread of disease by describing patients under their care, they underestimated the severity of the impact, even as the number of deaths rose rapidly in the two weeks prior to their meeting. In fact, the death rates had already decreased almost to normal levels by the time of this discussion. In certain ways, therefore, newspapers were a more accurate, timely, and detailed source of evidence for the scale of an epidemic, as compared to this dialogue among medical professionals. Yet newspapers also had their limitations, including gaps in published daily death totals, inconsistencies in reporting, and a tendency to use hyperbolic language. Any effort to reveal the data about mortality during an epidemic must thus rely on combinations of sources, including the daily reports of popular press and the expert analysis of health professionals.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 30px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/e_thomas_ewing.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2106\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/11\/05\/exploring-chicagos-spanish-flu-of-1918\/e_thomas_ewing\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/e_thomas_ewing.jpg?fit=240%2C294&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"240,294\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"E_Thomas_Ewing\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/e_thomas_ewing.jpg?fit=240%2C294&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/e_thomas_ewing.jpg?fit=240%2C294&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2106\" title=\"E. Thomas Ewing\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/e_thomas_ewing.jpg?resize=83%2C102&ssl=1\" alt=\"Casual portrait of a white man outside.\" width=\"83\" height=\"102\" \/><\/a>E. Thomas Ewing is a professor of history at Virginia Tech, with research interests in the history of influenza epidemics. In 2018, he directed a <a href=\"https:\/\/liberalarts.vt.edu\/news\/articles\/2018\/02\/summer-seminar-explore-devastating-flu-epidemic-recorded-history.html\">summer workshop<\/a> on the 1918 influenza epidemic funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EThomasEwing\">@ethomasewing<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 60px;\"><em> <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"26889\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/06\/08\/revealing-data-mortality-in-mexico-city-during-the-1890-influenza-epidemic\/sydney_murphy\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?fit=646%2C800&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"646,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"Sydney Murphy\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?fit=242%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?fit=646%2C800&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-26889\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?resize=81%2C100&ssl=1\" alt=\"A young white woman with a VT ball cap and a backpack, outdoors.\" width=\"81\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?resize=242%2C300&ssl=1 242w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sydney_Murphy.jpg?w=646&ssl=1 646w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 81px) 100vw, 81px\" \/><\/a>Sydney Murphy is an undergraduate research assistant at Virginia Tech. She is majoring in Microbiology with a minor in Spanish and has a personal interest in the history of science, health, and infectious disease.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Circulating Now welcomes guest bloggers E. Thomas Ewing, PhD, and Sydney Murphy from Virginia Tech to share their research into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":26885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51014,347145303,76943049],"tags":[273905,22379,136219,29189,783,668],"class_list":["post-26862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guests","category-rare-books-journals","category-revealing-data","tag-1800s","tag-data","tag-epidemic","tag-influenza","tag-mexico","tag-research"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Municipio-Libre-1890_feature.jpg?fit=756%2C336&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-6Zg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26862"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45327,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26862\/revisions\/45327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |