MARCH 14 2020 LISTENER 23
been dispensed. ‘They seem to like it,’ he
said.”
Another reason the alcoholic medicine
might have been popular is that there was
little entertainment. Places where large
numbers of people could gather, such
as swimming pools, pubs and picture
theatres, were closed down. The exception
was when the armistice was declared on
November 11 – a cause for public jubila-tion – which probably further spread the
virus among the crowds who turned out
to celebrate the end of the war.B
ryder says both now and then there
was a tendency to blame certain
groups for introducing or spread-
ing the virus. In Auckland, which was
the focus of her case study of the 1918
epidemic, the finger was pointed at
Asians and at women generally, who were
deemed not to be looking after their own
families – and the sick – well enough. In
fact, women formed the bulk of a volun-
tary brigade who went to people’s homes
to care for the sick.
Although public gatherings were
avoided, there was no attempt, except
in Coromandel, to quarantine people.
Coromandel sealed itself off, allowing no
one in or out by boat or car “and actuallythey didn’t get any cases, which was
impressive, though it could have been
good luck”.
Australia did try to quarantine itself
and managed to hold the virus out till
early 1919.
Public health advice during the
epidemic was holistic, Bryder says, with
a focus on healthy living. Hygiene mes-
sages were very much to the fore. The
germ theory of diseases had only just
been identified at the end of the 19th
century. “They were becoming very con-
scious of cleanliness as a result. Kissing
the Bible suddenly went out the window.”
Businesses were quick to pick up on
the commercial possibilities and the
therapeutic value of a range of prod-
ucts was promoted, regardless of how
unlikely the claims were. In an era long
before the Fair Trading Act ruled out
false advertising, products including
Lifebuoy soap, Oxo, Aspirin, quinine,
opium, turpentine, iodine, ammonia,
cinnamon, smoking, cocoa and disin-
fectant were all promoted as having
properties that could either prevent the
flu or ward it off.
Of course, none of them were a cure,
but by the end of 1918, the virus had
largely burnt itself out. “People who’ve
written about it have called it the
forgotten epidemic, because people just
accepted it as an act of God. It was so
much easier to focus on the war, and
this epidemic came from nowhere and
disappeared quickly, but it did leave a lot
of dead in its wake.”A person could show no
symptoms in the morning
and be dead by nightfall.For people who are employed but with no
investments, their main concern is retain-
ing their jobs. Those who are middle-aged
and have investments are most likely to be
concerned about what’s happening to their
savings, Norling says.
If people have more than 20 years left to
work before retirement and have a greater
tolerance for risk, they probably will do
nothing. If they have a diversified portfolio
that is well managed, they would have been
selling shares as they went up in value to
keep a proportion of their investments in
fixed-interest securities.
Now, as shares fall in value, he says inves-
tors should be thinking of selling some ofthose securities and re-investing in shares
to keep the proportions of their portfolios
balanced.
The people who thought they were big
risk-takers and have now discovered they are
not, are in the most difficult situation, he
says. “It might be a case that they do need
to take stock and make a careful reduction
of risk after the horse has bolted.”
Other investors will simply need “hand
holding” to improve their understanding
of market volatility and to be assured that
they still have time on their side for their
position to recover.
Though no one knows how either the
virus or the markets will behave in the
coming weeks, banks expect economic
activity to pick up again when the Covid-
19 threat passes.
In the meantime, for those who are
acutely worried, Wilson suggests not look-
ing. “People who watch a lot of news
coverage of anything distressing risk devel-
oping stress reactions that can be stronger
than those in people who have been directly
affected.
“People in the US who watched wall-to-
wall 9/11 coverage ended up as stressed,
depressed and anxious as people at ground
zero. My advice to those people is to limit
your doses of Covid-19 coverage.” lAmbulances in
Wellington during
the 1918 flu epidemic.
Left, orphans and
other infants whose
parents were ill or
who had died being
tended at Auckland’s
Myers Kindergarten.The OECD has halved
global growth forecasts
to a meagre 1.5% andwarned that some
countries could tipinto recession.