FROM THE PAST

1 May 2020, Friday.

From a small-town newspaper regarding my grandmother's little niece. Note the date.

Dr. and Mrs. J. J. Stitt received a telegram from C. H. Sankey Friday afternoon from Buffalo, stating that his little daughter Alice, five years old, had passed away at noon from pneumonia. This bit of news  will be sadly received by his friends here.

From: Unique Weekly, Risingsun, Ohio, 31 October 1918, Thursday
________

From the detective novel, The Lighthouse, by P.D. James, published in England, 2006

He moved over to the fireplace, holding chair backs for support, and knelt and put a match to the kindling. . . . He had been overheated in Atlantic Cottage; now his forehed was wet with globules of cold sweat. His hands seemed to have no relation to the rest of his body, and when he held out his long fingers to the comfort of the strengthening fire, they glowed translucent red, frail diembodied images incapable of feeling heat.

After a few minutes he stood upright, glad that he was now firmer on his feet. Although his body was responding with painful clumsiness to his will, his mind was clear. He know what was wrong: he must have caught Dr. Speidel's influenza.

. . . Then there was Stavely's voice. He said, "Rupert was ringing with a message for both of you. . . Dr. Speidel has SARS. I thought is was a possibility when I transferred him to Plymouth, and the diagnosis has been confirmed.

. . . Dalgleish asked quietly, "What are the symptoms?"

"Initially much the same as flu --- high temperature, aching limbs, loss of energy. There may not be a cough until later."

. . . Staveley said, "Inspector Miskin will have told you that we now know that Dr. Speidel is suffering from SARS. He is in a special isolation unit in Plymouth and is being well cared for. . . I have also to tell you that Commander Dalgleish has caught the infection and is at present in the sickroom here. Samples will be taken to confirm the diagnosis, but I'm afraid there can be little doubt.

First I want to reassure you that the primary way that SARS is spread is by close person-to-person contact, perhaps by droplets when the infected person coughs or sneezes, or by someone touching the surface or object which has been contamiated by infected droplets and then carrying them to the nose, mouth or eyes. It's possible that SARS might be carried through the air by other means, but at present no one seems sure of that. We can take it that only those of you who came into close contact with either Dr. Speidel or Mr. Dalgleish are seriously at risk. Nevertheless, it is right that everyone here at Combe should be in quarantine for about ten days.