Spanish Flu 2.0

This was supposed to be a photo juxtaposing the Spanish Flu in India with the current COVID crisis. But guess what: we couldn’t find any.

All of the photos we found were taken in the US or Europe. The solitary photo we did find was way too morbid for us to share.

Desis made up as much as 24% OF ALL DEATHS from the Spanish Flu. Some historians place the number of deaths at 18 million—6% of the entire Indian population. So how on earth wasn’t that properly documented?!

If you are thinking, “oh, it was a different time, it would have been much harder to send photographers to South Asia,” we will point you to the FIVE separate film crews 🎥 that were sent to India just a few years prior during the Delhi Durbar (a party for the British 👸).

Perhaps there was the thought from non-Desis “That’s over THERE. That doesn’t affect ME.”

Lol nope. The world doesn’t work that way.

Like COVID-19, the 1918 Flu was a global event that affected South Asia at a disproportionate rate. And that type of huge regional change always has global consequences. For example, it’s widely agreed that the Spanish Flu (and the British government’s callous response) fueled India’s independence movement and the demise of the British empire. Who knows what COVID-19 in India will yield?

There are other eerie similarities between then and now. India was hit hardest at a time when others in the world were “getting back to normal.” As the Spanish Flu wreaked devastation across the subcontinent, the British Raj denied its severity as fake news. British doctors were missing in action, so it was up to everyday Indians to come together to fight off the virus.

This time around, members of the Indian media and government have denied how bad COVID really is. Many of those stepping up to the plate are regular citizens, sharing information about oxygen tanks, beds, and vaccines on Twitter & WhatsApp.

But one thing that does NOT have to be the same is the body count.

If you are in Europe, please petition your EU representative to waive vaccine patents.

If you are in the US or elsewhere, please give $10 to help doctors in India deliver oxygen canisters. Check out our story on Instagram to learn how.