County, City was dealing with flu epidemic in Jan. 1962

Published 5:27 pm Friday, May 1, 2020

During mid-January of 1962, local residents were dealing with influenza, and some of the warnings and advice passed out by Dr. J.M. Willett, Director of the Carter County Health Center, sounded much like health warnings for today’s coronavirus pandemic: Avoid crowds and exposure as much as possible. Avoid contact with other people. Go home, go to bed, and don’t try to wear it out. Practice hand washing and good personal hygiene. Be cautious about returning to activity.

The article from the Elizabethton STAR noted that while fewer cases of the flu had been reported in Carter County that week, the number of cases increased sharply throughout Tennessee the second week of January, 1962. “Only 20 cases were reported in the county last week, compared to 40 the week before, and 67 for one week in mid-December. Last week, 1,654 cases were reported throughout the state, 300 more than for the same week last year,” reported Dr. Willettt.

He also noted in the same article that influenza when it hits an area has a tendency to spread rapidly. “It tends to go in waves. Thus, we would see a large number of cases in another section of the country and then shortly this increase would be reflected here,” said Dr. Willett.

“There is no unusual increase in the number of influenza cases in Carter County at this time. However certain measures may help to prevent a few cases which we always have with us and would cut down the number of epidemic cases if an epidemic should arrive,” Dr. Willett said.

Schools were dismissed in Carter County for three days the second week of January due to the number of absenteeisms from the flu.

• In May 1893 the Wall Street Crash of 1893 began as stock prices fell dramatically. By the end of the year, 600 banks closed and several big railroads were in receivership. Another 15,000 businesses went bankrupt amid 20 percent unemployment. It was the worst economic crisis in U.S. history up to that time.

• An American U-2 spy plane flying at 60,000 feet was shot down over Sverdlovsk in central Russia on May 1, 1950, the eve of a summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Russia’s Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The sensational incident caused a cancellation of the meeting and heightened existing Cold War tensions. The pilot, CIA agent Francis Gary Powers, survived the crash, and was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Russian court. Two years later he was released to America in exchange for an imprisoned Soviet spy. On his return to America, Powers encountered a hostile public which apparently believed he should not have allowed himself to be captured alive. He died in a helicopter crash in 1977. Powers attended Milligan College and had some ties to the area.

We are reminded more and more that there is nothing new that happens that hasn’t happened before.