Why does no one talk about the 1989-90 epidemic?

[LinemanForTheCounty]

Found out about this recently - 29000 dead. Looking at the dates I had it and after effects including pleurisy (I was 20, no reason for me to have pleurisy other than this). It affected people under 25 worst.

I dunno. I'm trying to figure this all out but that's a lot of people dead, mostly young people. Did we get it wrong then or have we got it wrong now? Our response, I mean.

I was at university and got the flu that winter- so did my house mate. I remember us being really ill. It was the winter that the Berlin Wall came down and Nelson Mandela was freed and we were both at home really really unwell. I think you remember when you actually have the flu because you just can't move.

I didn't know there was an epidemic though.

@Monty27

They burned the animals in what was known as a pyre didn't they? From my not massively reliable memory

That was foot and mouth I think.

I saw somewhere that there have been about 60,000 more deaths this year then expected so far, probably due to COVID 19, and it’s not over yet.

If there hadn’t been a lockdown that figure could have been 200,000 - 300,000.

I thought I didn't remember this until someone said 'superflu'. I remember news stories about superflu. However, being 17 I assumed it only affected older people and didn't think twice about it!

I read somewhere that there were 50,000 flu deaths in 2018 because the vaccine that year was fairly ineffective...

Flu is still not really comparable to a novel virus though. I think it is good that there is such a focus on a vaccine - the next coronavirus might be more silently spreading and more deadly and any boosts to immunity we get will be key!

I worked at a major nhs regional hospital serving a huge area of the country, I was responsible for managing bed numbers. There wasn't a major issue.

I would have been 14. I do remember a week when there were only 3 or 4 of my class (approx 25) not ill. The remaining 3-4 (me included) were ill the following week. I do not however have any memory of being ill so it can't have ben that bad.

I was late teens then and don't recall it. I also had more exposure to media at that point as I was working in a newsroom and largely spent my days reading newspapers! And I was an avid TV news watcher! Whereas now I try to avoid the news.

I don't remember that at all and I was an adult with 3 young DC.

The only time I can remember being ill was the winter of 68/69 my first year at secondary school. It was a bad winter anyway. Lots of snow and transport disruption.

I had Hong Kong flu that year and I do remember being very ill. Mum called the doctor out and she wasn't one for doing that! The previous occasion was when I had measles aged 5. I remember feeling so weak and sleeping most of the day on the sofa in the front room. I was the only one in the house to catch it. Mum and dad and the 4 younger ones were fine.

We've had all these deaths so far without the flu deaths, this is why I'm concerned about this winter. On average flu kills 17,000 a year, we are up to 40,000 in four months with social distancing. The death rate without SD doesn't bear thinking about

I had flu in winter 1990 and was really ill with it, recovered and thought I was fine and then relapsed (I was 34 at the time). I don't recall there was talk of an epidemic at the time. Even so it wasn't as bad as what some folk have suffered with Covid-19 during the past few months. I also had the flu in 1970-something and that was worse, my whole family came down with it as I brought it home from Uni. Started as a dry cough. Felt pretty ghastly for over a week and took longer than that to fully recover. I also had flu in 1997 I think it was, I caught it at my in-law to be's house when I went home with DP to spend Christmas with them. We all had it and completely missed any Christmas celebrations as we were too ill to get out of bed. That one lingered for some time with a chesty cough afterwards. Thankfully no lasting effects from any of those occasions. I missed out on catching the 2010 SARS.

Epidemic and pandemic are a bit different.

I think the lack of technology/communication probably played a part. We are all clued up to the latest updates via online info and communication

This also passed me by. Admittedly I would only have been a teenager but we had the news on every evening while eating tea and I don’t remember it. So obvious not the same media publicity or general concerns as currently.

Which if the death toll was only about 14,000 less Than for covid you have expected it to be in the news more.

Because this is a novel virus that spreads quickly. Flu has been around a long time and we have developed some immunity to it. Also no social media back then to whip everyone up into a frenzy.

I was 19 and working in Central London. I cannot remember it at all. I heard of it when all this kicked off and was bemused that it somehow passed me by. There was no disruption that I was aware of.

Duh! Not 19 - I was 29!!

My family all had this, I remember it vividly. My mum said later on that she thought she was going to die and my little brother who was 5 ended up with HSP, a post viral illness like kawasaki- he was in hospital for two weeks and a wheelchair for two months after that! Didn't realise it was an epidemic year, just thought it was what happened.

I remember it because my DD caught it, she was only 4 & was really unwell. I couldn’t even get a Dr’s appointment because they were so busy.

I had an awful case of flu when I was 9/10, which would have tied in with 1989/90.
I remember not being able to move, even my eyelids hurt when I blinked.

The death toll was lower with no social distancing and no lockdown so it isn't really on the same scale. Flu is really nasty though so I am not surprised that you remember it.

I remember that because I was at Uni and I genuinely thought I might die. It’s the Flu by which I measure all other ‘Flu’ I think I may have. Proper ‘couldn’t get out of bed to pick up £50 off the floor’ ill.
I collapsed while waiting for a taxi to the GP and went to hospital in an ambulance. Wasn’t admitted, spent a week eating fruity baby food out of jars brought to me by my boyfriend.

Flu kills many more young people than covid and spreads easily among them and back to their families in a way that covid doesn’t appear to. Yet we don’t shut schools for flu but we have for covid. When we look back on this people will see how messed up our response has been and how flawed the Imperial model, assuming we were all equally susceptible, was. The risk with covid is mainly to the very old. If we really cared about protecting them we should have made sure they were safe and the rest of us should have carried on our lives.

Was there not one in the 50s'or 60s that killed 30,000 too?

No TV in Halls and didn’t get a daily paper so I wouldn’t have known it was a very bad flu epidemic. Didn’t even phone my parents as they couldn’t have done anything and I didn’t want to worry them.