Denver Shut Tight To End 'Flu'

• All public places closed and all meetings are prohibited. Some early morning Catholic masses will be held this morning because the order does not take effect until 11 AM. The length of the closures will be determined by whether the situation improves or not within the city. Estimated to be in effect for two weeks. • The Denver board of health admits that “the epidemic now threatens to assume alarming proportions.”• Board of health will inspect all workplaces/factories that employee many workers immediately. Sick workers will be sent home. Workplaces that cannot be properly ventilated will be closed. • Shoppers and those who patronize restaurants are asked not to linger. Don’t make unnecessary visits to stores.• Public is encouraged to spend as much time outside as possible and to get plenty of fresh air. Parents should let children out of doors as much as possible but discourage “the gathering of children for the purpose of amusement.”• All groupings of people are considered dangerous, even those between 2 – 3 people. This is particularly true if one or more persons are ill. • Liberty loan meetings will be held outside. (Ad: “Spanish Flu can’t stop the Liberty Loan drive—it didn’t stop the boys at the front. Don’t let it stop you—buy bonds at once.”)• Influenza appears to be hitting young people, between 25-30, who are otherwise in good health. • No tuberculosis patients have been recorded as also suffering from influenza. This is surprising because, as Dr. Sharpley comments, those with respiratory diseases should be susceptible to influenza, especially because they cannot ward off disease as well as a healthy person.• At prompting of Catholic priest, the health board will consider funding a mobile volunteer nursing service for those who cannot afford healthcare. • If the epidemic gets worse, there will be a serious nursing shortage. Already many nurses are serving the war effort or are sick themselves. A call for nurses will go out soon, with the assistance of the Red Cross. Any women who have enough nursing training to allow them to take care of an influenza patient are encouraged to offer their services. • The epidemic has hit so fast that the supply of oxygen—a final treatment for pneumonia—is running low. Colorado Springs asked for oxygen supplies from Denver and had to be refused. • Dr. H. L. Taylor estimates that “unless drastic measures [are] taken at once” approximately 10,000 to 15,000 cases will appear within the next week in Denver. • “The germ which causes the Spanish influenza is declared by the physicians to be a short-lived one, and it is believed that the measures taken last night will effectively halt the progress of the epidemic.”• Quarantine placed on Fort Logan. No soldiers are allowed to leave the fort grounds until further notice. There are no influenza cases yet; this is a preventative measure. • Businessmen and church personnel support the closures because they believe it will help limit the epidemic’s impact. • “H. E. Elison, speaking for the motion picture theaters, said that altho [sic] the closing of their houses would practically spell ruin to their business, the theater men considered the saving of lives paramount and would cheerfully abide by the decision of the health officers.”• Notice that any events or meetings advertised in today’s paper that went to print before the closure are all cancelled due to closure order. • Dr. Sharpley requests that Denver residents do not burn leaves. The smoke caused by leaf burning is hazardous to health no matter what and contributes to the development of colds. Therefore, since an epidemic is building, whose symptoms closely resemble a common cold at first, leaf burning is especially dangerous.Newspaper article1,