During the 1918 flu pandemic in San Diego a letter writer to the Evening Tribune dismissed the whole thing as “influenza propaganda” from the health board and suggested that doctors were just trying to drum up business. The deadly 1918 flu pandemic claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

From the Evening Tribune, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 1918:

WRITER DECLARES FLU IS MATTER OF FEAR

Editor Evening Tribune:

In The Evening Tribune recently I read an article by Dr. R.L. Doig in which he expressed himself as opposed to the lifting of the quarantine.

As I am a free born American citizen and from Missouri, I consider that I am also entitled to take a rap at the dreaded so-called “influenza germ.”

I must admit that I have been and am still interested in this terrible germ. I have read numerous articles by the health board and learned physicians and have come to a full realization of what a hydra headed monster this “flu germ” really is. While these many articles have instilled in the public a fear of this dreaded disease. Yet I in all humility wish to place myself at the mercy of the public in asking a few questions.

In the first place. what does this “influenza germ” look like? How many legs and heads has it. Some doctors contend that the “germ” is so small as to be undiscernible with the most powerful magnifying glass. Others very minutely describe the germ. There seems to be some difference of opinion as to how many millions can congregate on the point of a needle. Consequently there must be a difference of opinion as to how many hundreds or thousands can pass through the mesh of the cloth of which “flu” nose bags are composed.

Thus far I have found no article in which the doctors could agree. I have read so much about the horrors or the disease that I am interested in knowing exactly what it is and what causes it. I have talked with many people who were mildly afraid of it. They expressed fear that they were going to have it and they did. The symptoms have been so thoroughly advertised that any one who will take the time to read can develop not only the symptoms but the disease. If they can absorb enough of the fear as expressed in some of the articles they certainly stand better than a 50-50 chance of passing on.

Dr. Doig mentions 50 deaths having occurred among the foreign population and expresses the thought that if these deaths have appeared among the residents of Mission Hills that the public opinion would call for a more strict quarantine.

Here is something for Dr. Doig to think about. I ask, is there any better place to sow the seeds of fear? Is there a better place for the so-called influenza germ to get in its work any better place than among the ignorant and the poor? Consider their greater fear, financial difficulties, the thought of loss of time, the thought of home in which children may be crying for bread.

In Mission Hills, as well as other parts of our city, there is an entirely different class of people, people who are educated, people who have sufficient earning capacity that they and their families may live right. Then consider this: They are people who are more or less inclined to do their own thinking and are consequently less susceptible to the influenza propaganda.

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Historical photos and articles from The San Diego Union-Tribune archives are compiled by Merrie Monteagudo. Search the U-T historic archives at NewsLibrary.com/sites/sdub