Our great experiment

Are we just hamsters in a lab? [View this email in your browser]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, By now you’ve heard a bit about the influenza pandemic of 1918, known by its misnomer, the Spanish flu. When the Covid-19 pandemic took us off guard, the Spanish flu was the first precedent that immediately floated up for many of us … the last time a disease wrapped its infected arms around the entire world so vociferously. The effect was catastrophic. The total deaths of World War I (1914-18), undoubtedly one of the most severe conflicts in human history, is generally estimated to be in the region of 20 million, including the fatal repercussions of the aftermath. The Spanish flu overtook that within months; the generally accepted range for loss of life sits somewhere between 25 million and 50 million, but some researchers reckon it could have approached 100 million. With poor reporting techniques back then there’s no way of knowing for certain. (This is not exactly a problem we’re inoculated against today.) Then, as it was in 2020, there was a scramble to learn everything that could be learned about this mystery virus. No one could understand how strangers around the world were stricken with the Spanish flu within days of each other — this was, after all, long before commercial air travel. Additionally, unlike Covid-19, it was prejudicial to young adults with healthy immune systems; as opposed to infants and the old. Bill Bryson, in [A Short History of Nearly Everything]( catalogues a bewildering experiment that took place in search of those answers. In 1918, three American doctors, unencumbered by pesky accords and human rights laws, offered Boston prisoners a deal: submit to medical trials and earn a pardon. More than 300 freedom seekers volunteered; 62 were ultimately selected. The doctors exposed the subjects to the flu virus by every conceivable method. It was injected, swabbed and sprayed through aerosols. Samples were taken from the throats of the dead or dying and exposed to the trialists. Perhaps the most rigorous scientific approach saw trialists taken to sick beds where their ailing incumbents were asked to sit up and cough in their faces. To the great consternation of the researchers, nothing happened. Beyond a few mild symptoms the prisoners were unaffected by this slimy ordeal and all lived to retell it. The only person to die was one of the doctors overseeing the tests. Although no one can say for sure, the common theory is that the would-be victims must have been previously exposed to the virus. A previous outbreak in the jail would have explained why they had built up a natural immunity. Still, any reasonable person would think it’s reprehensible to hear of authorities playing with human life so casually. Thankfully today’s residents of Kgosi Mampuru don’t have to worry about such a dilemma. But that doesn’t exonerate the rest of us. Since that infinitesimal spiked ball rocked up in South Africa, the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma-helmed Coronavirus Command Council has carried a distinct experimental flavour about it. From sharing zol to illicit cigarettes: by now you know the details. And confidence in it and other decision-makers has not exactly improved. But, as we are wont to preach in this newsletter, South Africans are resilient folks and should not wait for government direction to act appropriately. From midnight that ceases to be a suggestion and becomes an imperative. The mask mandate, along with all other state of disaster regulations, is set to expire. Although, the department of health has [promised an update before te evening is out](. Either way, people will have to act with “common sense”, as Bongeka Gumede and Chris Bateman [reported last week](. To the health department, this means the continued use of masks. “Even if the government says they don’t have to put their masks on … you know that you can easily get infected by the disease,” a spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian. For professor of vaccinology Shabir Madhi that advice is beside the point. “We should stop pretending as if the mask mandate does work in South Africa, it hasn’t worked in South Africa,” he said. “It might work in other settings where people are more adherent to this sort of mandated regulation and are able to wear the right type of masks but in a South African context the starting point is that masks haven’t done much in preventing infection.” Whatever your view, and whatever happens tonight, it’s hard to escape the feeling that we’re all hamsters in a haphazard lab of statistical data. Be safe out there, for you and your loved ones. Yours in solidarity, Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? 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