Hey there! Have you ever wondered if something like the coronavirus has happened before? Well, that’s a great question! The year 2020 was a really unusual year. Many businesses had to close their offices, and schools shut their doors. People started working and learning from home. It was a year full of changes, and many of us couldn’t see our friends or visit family like we used to.
Even older people, like our grandparents, hadn’t seen anything like this before. My Grandpa Lou, who is 99 years old, said he had never experienced anything like it. But if we go back even further in time, to when my grandpa’s parents were alive, we might find a different story.
In 1918, over 100 years ago, there was another big event similar to what happened in 2020. People back then were also wearing masks and keeping their distance from each other. Schools were closed, and life was very different. This was because of a pandemic, which is when a disease spreads widely and changes our everyday lives.
The 1918 pandemic was caused by a disease called influenza, or the flu. It was a different kind of germ than the coronavirus. The flu back then was much worse than the colds we get today. People had high fevers, chills, and bad coughs. It was often deadly, but eventually, the pandemic ended because the virus couldn’t spread anymore.
Now, let’s talk about the coronavirus. Scientists are working really hard to find a cure for it. Even though we don’t have a cure yet, doctors have gotten much better at helping people who get sick. They’ve learned a lot about how to treat the disease, and they’re twice as good at saving lives now.
It’s a bit scary to have a virus going around, but we can take comfort in knowing that people have faced similar challenges before. Our ancestors were strong and got through tough times, and we can too. We’ll get through this together!
Thanks for asking such a great question! Remember, there are mysteries all around us, so stay curious and keep exploring!
Time Traveler’s Diary: Imagine you are living in the year 1918 during the influenza pandemic. Write a short diary entry about your day. What activities do you do at home? How do you feel about not going to school? Share your diary entry with your family and ask them how they think life was different back then compared to now.
Mask Design Challenge: Just like people in 1918 and 2020, imagine you need to wear a mask to stay safe. Design your own mask using paper, markers, and other craft materials. Think about what colors and patterns you would like on your mask. Once you have created your design, explain to a friend or family member why you chose those colors and patterns.
Germ Detective: Go on a “germ detective” mission in your home. With the help of an adult, identify places where germs might hide, like doorknobs, light switches, and remote controls. Create a checklist and use it to clean these areas. Discuss with your family why it’s important to keep these places clean, especially during a pandemic.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(ringtone beeping)(screen warps)
– Hi, Doug.
– Hi, Carter.
– I have a question for you. Has anything like the coronavirus ever happened before?
– Carter, that’s such a great question. The year 2020 will forever be known as a strange year. So many businesses have closed their offices. That’s been true for Mystery Science. Here’s a selfie I took from one of the last days I was in our office, before my coworkers and I all started to work from home. Schools have shut their doors. If you’re watching this video in the United States, chances are that you’ve done some virtual learning, meeting with your class or teacher online. There have been so many changes in our lives in the year 2020. I’m guessing there are friends you haven’t gotten to see, family members you haven’t gotten to visit, maybe places you haven’t gotten to go. Before 2020, there was nothing quite like this that had happened in your life. But I’m a lot older than you are, and I’m telling you, there was nothing like this that ever happened before in my life, either. Where I grew up, maybe school got closed for one or two days if there was bad weather. But school being closed for months? Never. And if you ask people who are even older than I am, like when I asked my parents, they say, “Nope, we’ve never seen anything like this in our lives before, either.” I even asked my Grandpa Lou, who’s turning 99 years old this year. “Grandpa,” I said, “has anything like this ever happened before in your life?” “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. “Never.” 2020 is a year that, in the future, seems like it might be remembered for a long time. Maybe in the future, if people tell stories or make dolls showing children from the 2020s, they’ll be dolls wearing masks. But if we go just a little earlier in time from when my Grandpa Lou was born, like, if we could ask my grandpa’s parents, if they were still alive, “Have you ever seen anything like this happen before?” they might have a different answer. Here’s a photo taken in the year 1918. That’s the time period when they were alive, just over 100 years ago. What do you notice? Why do you think these people, 100 years ago, are wearing masks? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? So what’s going on here? Well, if you could travel back in time and walk around in the years 1918 and 1919, you’d find a lot of similarities with the year 2020. You’d notice people wearing masks as they walk down the sidewalk. You might see athletes at sporting events wearing masks, neighbors trying to keep distance from each other, lots of schools closed. So, you see, this kind of thing has happened before. And there’s even a word for it: a pandemic. That’s when a disease goes around that’s serious enough that it causes big changes to our everyday life. In this case, the disease wasn’t COVID-19. It wasn’t caused by the coronavirus germ. Instead, the pandemic of 1918 was a disease called influenza, or the flu for short, and it was caused by a different kind of germ than the coronavirus, a germ called an influenza virus. My great-grandparents, or, in your case, it might have been your great-great-grandparents, your grandparents’ grandparents, they were the ones who experienced the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919. Now maybe you’ve had influenza, or the flu, before. If you have, you know that it feels so much worse than a cold. You usually get a really high fever, chills, a bad cough, and maybe your muscles ache. But when people got the flu during the influenza pandemic of 1918, it was a type of influenza which was much worse, and often deadly. The pandemic was over by around 1919, not because scientists had found a way to stop the virus, but because it had spread around enough of the world that it just couldn’t spread anymore. While scientists, still to this day, have not yet discovered a cure for the influenza virus, we do have much better treatments for it. It’s not as likely to be deadly if you were to get it today.
So what about the coronavirus? How long until we have a cure for that? Do we have to just wait for it to spread around the world, like the influenza virus did in 1918? Hopefully not. Scientists are working really hard right now to develop a cure for the coronavirus. Nobody knows if they’ll succeed in creating one soon or not. But even since the coronavirus started really spreading around last spring, some of the medicines that doctors and scientists have developed, and what they learned about how to help people who are suffering from the disease, have already gotten a lot better. Doctors have gotten twice as good at stopping someone from dying if they do catch the coronavirus. Unfortunately, the virus is still spreading around. And while it is scary that there’s a virus going around that can harm people we love, I think we can take some comfort in knowing that this kind of thing, a pandemic, has happened before. And the fact that you and I are all here is because we are the grandchildren of people who lived through difficult times like these. Our ancestors were tough, and we can be, too. We’ll get through this. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Carter, for asking this. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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