17 December 2008
No Ordinary Flu
This is a transcript for the pdf No Ordinary Flu
(begin transcript)
Cover
Title: No Ordinary Flu
Visuals: Montage of 1918 story and modern story
Narration: In 1918, a terrible disease ransacked the globe – the most deadly disease outbreak in modern history. The disease was influenza but it was no ordinary flu …
Narration: Also in this issue: How you can prepare for the current pandemic threat.
Panel 1
Visuals: Teenage boy, in the midst of rummaging, holding up a sepia photo of a young man to show mother.
Title: No Ordinary Flu
Teen: Hey mom, who is this?
Panel 2
Visuals: Teenage boy showing mother photo.
Mother/Narration: That’s you great uncle Arturo. He died in the great pandemic of 1918.
Panel 3
Visuals: Photo of young man.
Mother: They say it nearly broke Great-Grandma Maria’s heart.
Panel 4
Visuals: Teenage boy looking at photo.
Teen: But he looked so young. What happened?
Panel 5
Visuals: Troops returning home on a train to cheering crowd.
Narration: In the fall of 1918, it looked like the first world war was winding down.
Panel 6
Visuals: Mother, father, adolescent girl greeting and hugging young soldier (Arturo).
Panel 7
Visuals: Young man in shopkeeper’s apron bagging produce, smiling at adolescent girl.
Narration: For our family, things were looking up
Arturo: It’s good to be back, Maria, even if it means helping Ma and Pop out at the store.
Panel 8
Visuals: Arturo and Max the delivery guy who is handing him a crate of produce.
Everyone loved Arturo.
Max: Great to have you back, soldier!
Arturo: Thanks, Max!
Panel 9
Visuals: Ma and Maria, walking down a bustling street while Ma reads from a letter.
Narrator: But life would soon take a different turn.
Ma: Aunt Eva says that folks in Philadelphia are dying from influenza.
Panel 10
Visuals: Newspaper headlines: DEADLY FLU IN EAST COAST.
Panel 11
Visuals: Maria in bed, feverish. Ma mopping her brow.
Narration: In a matter of weeks the flu had arrived and your great grandma was the first to get sick.
Ma: She’s delirious. I’ll take care of her. Arturo, fill in for me at the store.
Panel 12
Visuals: Arturo walking down a nearly empty street, one person covering nose and mouth with a handkerchief.
Narration: Almost overnight, their world had changed.
Panel 13
Visuals: Arturo walking past theater with sign “Closed by order of Health Dept.”
Panel 14
Visuals: Arturo walking past empty schoolyard.
Panel 15
Visuals: Pop at the store, talking to Arturo.
Pop: No delivery today. Max is sick.
Panel 16
Visuals: Ma and Maria ill, Arturo bringing medicine.
Narration: When his mother fell ill, Arturo cared for her and Maria.
Panel 17
Visuals: Nurse talking to Arturo.
Nurse: Arturo, we just don’t have any nurses available. So many of our doctors and nurses are sick and there are too many sick people.
Panel 18
Visuals: Angry woman at store, confronting Pop. Shelves are nearly bare.
Narration: It wasn’t much better at the store.
Pop: I’m sorry ma’am. We just aren’t getting any shipments.
Panel 19
Visuals: Three panels showing vignettes of the city: exhausted nurses, person hanging “Going out of business” sign.
Narration: The entire city was suffering.
Panel 20
Visuals: Sign in front of church: Services Cancelled.
Panel 21
Visuals: Ma and Maria sitting up. Arturo smiling, serving soup.
Narration: Fortunately, Maria and her mother started to recover after a few weeks.
Panel 22
Visuals: Close-up of Arturo riding streetcar, coughing. Passenger next to him wearing mask, reading paper.
Narration: But the family wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Arturo fell ill very suddenly.
Panel 23
Visuals: Extreme close-up of passenger next to Arturo looking in his direction nervously.
Panel 24
Visuals: Zoom out to see streetcar with the passenger having moved far away from Arturo, Arturo hunched over, coughing.
Panel 25
Visuals: Arturo dead in bed, Ma, Pop, and Maria grieving.
Narration: Like many other young adults, Arturo became very sick, very quickly. He died the next day.
Panel 26
Visuals: Cemetery scene with Ma talking to funeral director.
Funeral director: I’m sorry, ma’am. We’re all out of coffins.
Panel 27
Visuals: Pastor talking to Pop.
Pastor: We can’t hold funerals or gatherings of any sort where people could spread flu to one another.
Panel 28
Visuals: Grieving Maria, clutching photo of Arturo.
Narration: Maria took it the hardest.
Panel 29
Visuals: Mother (narrator) with teen looking at photo.
Mother: So many died. 50 million people died in the pandemic around the world, 675,000 in the United States. Devastating numbers, but the vast majority survived. Maria -- your great grandmother -- was a survivor.”
Panel 30
Visuals: Diverse group of people, clearly in present day.
Narration: We are all descendants of survivors of the 1918 pandemic.
But the threat of pandemic influenza hasn’t left.
Panel 31
Visuals: Family watching TV news.
Narration: Later …
TV: “…health experts are concerned that a new flu virus could spark a pandemic…”
Teen: Hey Mom!
Panel 32
Visuals: Close-up of TV anchor.
Anchor: Pandemic flu is different from the flu we see each winter.
Panel 33
Visuals: Close-up of TV anchor.
Anchor: It’s caused by a new virus that the human body has never encountered.
Panel 34
Visuals: The flu virus magnified thousands of times.
Narration: Our bodies will have trouble fighting a new flu virus.
Panel 35
Visuals: Scientists in a laboratory.
Narration: Unlike the flu we see each winter, there is no pandemic flu vaccine at this time.
Panel 36
Visuals: Split panel showing “1918” with a ship carrying troops, and “Now” with airplane passengers.
Narration: A pandemic virus would spread quickly through contact between people.
Panel 37
Visuals: Globe.
Narration: Pandemic flu will spread to every corner of the world. Everywhere, everyday life will change.
Panel 38
Visuals: Empty classroom.
Narration: To slow the spread disease, schools and daycares may close.
Panel 39
Visuals: Construction site or warehouse with no workers.
Narration: Many people will be unable to work.
Panel 40
Visuals: Bank with one teller working, other spots with signs, “Closed.”
Narration: Many people will be unable to work.
Panel 41
Visuals: Shot from a high angle of a group of office cubicles with only one worker.
Panel 42
Visuals: Empty sports field.
Narration: Public events may be cancelled.
Panel 43
Visuals: Overcrowded hospital.
Narration: It may be difficult to get medical care.
Panel 44
Visuals: Nurses talking to one another. Patients waiting in background.
Nurse: Dr. Van is sick too. I don’t know how we can keep up.
Panel 45
Visuals: Father checking a child’s temperature.
Narration: But most flu patients can be cared for at home.
Panel 46
Visuals: Mother talking.
Narration: It might not be as bad as 1918. Two milder flu pandemics happened in 1957 and 1968.
Panel 47
Visuals: Mother and son looking at pantry with rice, soup, beans, pasta, toilet paper, water, etc.
Mother: But even if it’s milder, we need to be prepared.
Panel 48
Visuals: Mother hand stocking cabinet with soup.
Narration: Be ready to stay home for at least a week (at a minimum, since a pandemic may last weeks to months.)
Panel 49
Visuals: Son looking at medicine cabinet.
Narration: Store health and medical supplies.
Panel 50
Visuals: Person talking on phone while child is reading.
Narration: Decide who will take of children if schools are closed.
Panel 51
Visuals: Man telecommuting on telephone and working on laptop.
Narration: Plan how you can work from home, if possible.
Panel 52
Visuals: Teenage girl dropping off groceries at the doorstep of elderly woman, waving from a window.
Narration: Be ready to help neighbors during a pandemic.
Panel 53
Visuals: Droplets spraying from sneezing person.
Narration: Stop flu germs. They spread when people cough and sneeze.
Panel 54
Visuals: Person coughing on hand, then that hand …
Narration: Or when hands that have flu germs on them …
Panel 55
Visuals: Hand touching doorknob.
Narration: … pass the germs to other objects.
Panel 56
Visuals: Hand touching light switch.
Narration: The flu germs can live on those objects for days.
Panel 57
Visuals: Washing hands in sink.
Narration: Washing your hands frequently is the best protection.
Panel 58
Visuals: Bottle of hand sanitizer.
Narration: Use hand sanitizer if you don’t have soap and water (on bottle: hand sanitizer 60 percent alcohol).
Panel 59
Visuals: People sneezing into crooks of arms.
Narration: Stop flu germs by covering your coughs and sneezes.
Panel 60
Visuals: Person looking at computer screen.
Narration: Learn more about pandemic flu from your health department or this Web site.
Panel 61
Visuals: Teenage son looking at photo on mantel. Mom carrying a box.
Teenage son: No one knows when a pandemic will come, right?
Mother: True. But if we prepare now, we’ll get through a pandemic much better when it does come.
Back Cover
Glossary:
Influenza (or flu): an illness of the nose, throat and lungs that is caused by an influenza virus. Flu can be passed from one person to another.
Pandemic: disease which starts in one place and spreads around the world.
Virus: a type of germ that can cause mild illness, such as the common cold, or some very serious diseases. Antibiotics do not work against viruses.
Acknowledgements
Developed by Public Health – Seattle & King County Advanced Practice Center. Used with permission.
Concept and story by Meredith Li-Vollmer and Matthew French
Artwork by David Lasky
Funding provided by Cooperative Agreement Number U50/CCU302718 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC or NACCHO.
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