Forgotten pandemic: what's changed since the Hong Kong flu?

There was no #lockdown when some 30-thousand in #France alone died in 1968-70 of the Hong Kong flu.
A forgotten episode, even by those who lived through it.
Dr Anne-Marie Moulin of the French National Science Research Center (CNRS) remembers the student protests of May 68, but not the pandemic...
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[ladyjacalyn]

I was 8 years old and was terribly ill from the Hong Kong flu. Similar symptoms like current pandemic, loss of taste, high fever....It took my brother and I 2 weeks to recover.

[maureen]

I, m 72 and I had Hong Kong flu and I did not know it was a killer until recently. It was memorable for sure but we were not neurotic then. The rich do not care if the ordinary workers are brought to their knees. If the whole world collapsed they, d still be all right. I do not believe people would have allowed the government to lock them down for more than a few weeks i the past.

[eNeVeFamily]

Was just talking to my neighbor who was in vietnam about his experience with the flu. Wish humans remembered how tough we actually are.

[ppft]

I had the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 at age 17. Our family was on a car trip to Florida and half of us got sick. I saw a doctor as I had 104 deg F temperature. We were not aware of the Hong Kong Flu until the doctor said I had it. I recovered in 3 days and suffered from fatigue. No lockdowns or masks, some social distancing and washing of hands which was common for seasonal flu already.

[johngillon]

I was 18 in the navy in the gulf of tonkin, and i came down with swine flue and ended up in sick bay of the uss kittyhawk. i was super messed up and under an oxygen tent. we pulled into port and they scheduled to paint sick bay so they sent me to the marine hospital . i went to olongapo city with a shipmate to have a few beers before i went to the marine hospital. I met a lady in the bar and she claimed if i went with her while the ship was in port, she would make me better. two weeks later i was feeling good, had a tan and went back to the ship expecting to be in deep trouble for having taken a two week vacation from the navy. anyway the engtineering officer remarked. "Wow the marines treated you well, you look fantastic, we were really worried about you. But now we cannot let you back to work in the engine room cause of your compromised lungs, so we are going to make you a clerk in the office. Fantastic, i learned really quick how to work over my service record so that there was no record of me being sent to the marines . I never could find the nice lady when we returned to port, but believe that the mango juice, good fresh food and nice company is what cured me. I cannot understand the madness of this current covid 19. i am 71 years old don't have allot of time left, but do not want to live with this mask bullship and the capprecious manner that powers that bee dictate to us.

[marchoffman]

i wasn.t born when there was the 1918 spanish flu pandemic or the 1968 hong kong flu pandemic.

[TheHollyemarie]

I had the hong Kong flu in 1967 when it first was noticed..I was so sick they didn't think I would servive it...but of course I did .funny you never really hear about it..

[gmg]

And then the next month they all went to Woodstock

[LiogCeartas]

Almost killed my mom. I would not be here.

[marchoffman]

don.t remember this pandemic because i wasn.t born and around when it happened.

[TonyAKA]

People were not Oversensitive back then and didn't take desicisons based on Fear.

[canman]

The worse was the Spanish Flu and the pandemic in 1895 resulting in over 200, 000 deaths in Hong Kong.

[Ahuntsicspotter]

The Hong-Kong flu was during the cold war and it didn't hit the USSR and Eastern Europe.

[roberts.arnone]

Too much fear today. A lot of it I think is fed to us politically, which is unfortunate. A woman in some of the footage said that life goes on there’s not much else we can do. And I think even today that’s very true. Life has to go on. We’re a lot stronger than we think.

[canman]

I remember many people talked about this in those days. I was only 7 years old and among the first to get vaccinated in school.

[lynnbrown]

The Hong Kong Flu was beforen1968. I had it in 1964 plus going tohave a baby that year. Between the two ittook me a year to get energy back. Hoever, haven't had a coldor virius since then. No idea where I caught that flu but glad my family didn't get it.

[RamonaRayTodosSantosBCS]

1 got the Hong Kong flu. Was awful. But no one used masks. Lol

[sandysnook]

I had the Hong Kong Flue in 1969 . I was 20 yrs. old and had a 1 year old baby girl and a 3 year old little boy. My husband stayed home from work for almost 2 weeks . and then my mom came over every day for another week. I was quarantined in my bedroom the whole time!

[rtyu]

As I commented in another vid, I just found out about the 1968 epidemic a few months ago. Same thing: from China, spread like wildfire, killed 1 M worldwide and 100K in the US ... and then was completely forgotten. Vietnam War, civil rights marches, assassinations and moon shots pushed it out of the news. People in the late-60s were also preoccupied with the drug culture, airline hijackings and the sexual revolution.

Were people tougher back then? Sure, more people smoked in the 1960s, but they were also a lot thinner and got more exercise outdoors. Back then if it wasn't smallpox or polio, well then it was no big deal. I was born in 1967 and that's my two cents.

[Arminixnix]

My mother was vaccinated but got the flu. And I (toddler at that time) got infected with a severe pneumonia.