Article
ID: CBB001252196

Fighting Flu: Military Pathology, Vaccines, and the Conflicted Identity of the 1918--19 Pandemic in Britain (2013)

unapi
Influenza Medicine and the military; medicine in war Vaccines; vaccination Medicine Pathology 20th century, early Great Britain

This article explores the decisive role of British military medicine in shaping official approaches to the 1918 influenza pandemic. It contends that British approaches were defined through a system of military pathology, which had been established by the War Office as part of the mobilization of medicine for the First World War. Relying on the bacteriological laboratory for the identification and control of pathogenic agents, military pathology delivered therapeutic and preventive measures against a range of battlefield diseases, and military and civilian authorities trusted that it could do the same with influenza. This article traces how it shaped efforts to establish the etiology of the pandemic and to produce a general influenza vaccine. It highlights the challenges involved in both strategies. Understanding the central role of military pathology helps make sense of the nature, direction, scale, and limitations of medical mobilization against the pandemic in Britain and the authority accorded to specific medical bodies for elaborating and coordinating strategies. Crucially, it demands that we rethink the relationship between the war and pandemic as one about the social organization of medical knowledge and institutions.

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Authors & Contributors
Eyler, John M.
Sangkot Marzuki
J. Kevin Baird
Harris, James J.
Bresalier, M C
Villiers, J. C. de
Journals
Social History of Medicine
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Journal of Medical Biography
Gewina
Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam
Publishers
University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Syracuse University
Schöningh
Routledge
Protea Book House
Potomac Books
Concepts
Medicine
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
Influenza
Vaccines; vaccination
Disease and diseases
Pathology
People
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Ravetllat Estech, Joaquim
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Great Britain
South Africa
Indonesia
Catalonia (Spain)
London (England)
United States
Institutions
International Red Cross
American Public Health Association
Universiteit Leiden
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