Changes

This pandemic was the first to be reported in near real-time across much of North America and Europe. By this time, the telegraph and media in countries had developed where they began to report not only cases in their own country and cities but also in far more distant areas. Given this, many officials later criticized government responses as being very slow considering media reports about outbreaks in cities reaching distant continents in a day. This pandemic was the first to widely reported by many different countries as well. The economic consequences were severe in some places, particularly Europe. However, most economies recovered within a year of the outbreak. The pandemic also claimed the lives of many well known wealthy and aristocrats in Europe. In some way, the death of prominent figures and the speed in which the influenza went through countries may have helped lead to reforms in public health witnessed in the 1890s. More attempts to create public parks, increase urban space, and improve sanitation were part of the progress witnessed in Britain and the United States in the 1890s. It was recognized that the influenza spread due to close contact between people and that sanitation, including underlying health, played a role in how well people survived infection. Interestingly, during the 1890s there was great push towards testing for different infectious diseases. The first publicly funded health laboratories in the United States opened in the 1890s in Massachusetts and New York. Politically, the slow response by the US government, along with the panic of 1890 and raised trade tariffs, may have led to some of the electoral defeats witnessed that November. Congressional races led to the House being controlled by the Democrats, with Benjamin Harrison's party suffering great defeat. Perhaps the one of the more notable long-term consequences is that many individuals who lived during this pandemic and the one that occurred in 1918 were able to obtain greater immunity to the effects. In fact, demographic data from the flu of 1918 indicates people born after 1890 had much higher death rates. In contrast, the 1889-1890 outbreak was more even in who it affected and mostly affected people with underlying health conditions the worst.