Latter-day Saint Reactions to Epidemics in Utah

In late September 1957, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it was canceling its October general conference because of the Asian flu. It canceled not only the conference general sessions but also all related meetings: “the Relief Society conference, the dedication of the Aaronic Priesthood memorial, the missionary reunions and the agricultural meeting.” Church authorities arrived at this decision after consulting with “all public agencies,” including soliciting an “opinion” from the Utah State Department of Health. The resulting opinion was quoted in part by an article in the Church News, an official church publication: No exact prediction can be made whether conference would be disrupted with a high attack rate of Asian flu, but in the interest of prevention of disease, it is the considered opinion of the health department that there exists the possibility that an excess incidents [sic] of Asian flu might be expected to attend the gathering such as conference at this time.The First Presidency, the church's highest governing body, explained its own reasoning, “prayerfully reached,” in canceling the conference: Since the conference draws people from many sections of our own country, and from foreign countries and since there is the possibility of the introduction of this disease into sections now free from it through contacts made at the conference, we think it unwise for the Church to assume the responsibility of further spread of the disease by calling the members together at this critical time. Life is so precious the Lord expects us to do all within our power to conserve it.The church announcement also reminded its readers of another time that church conference had been “postponed because of influenza,” when the April 1919 conference was postponed until June 1, 1919. Also, “general conferences during World War II were curtailed because of transportation problems.”1The nation experienced a serious outbreak of influenza in 1957 that was called the Asian flu at the time and is now forgotten by many. The experience of Utah during this pandemic was mostly typical for the nation, but as is so often the case with Utah history, the actions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members were important. In order to understand the context of decisions made in 1957, we need to look at an earlier smallpox epidemic in Utah in 1899–1900, the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, and the rise of polio outbreaks later. Smallpox could be countered with inoculations or a vaccine, influenza had no vaccine at the time, and polio vaccines were developed in the 1950s. The stories of these three medical challenges in Utah show that while the institutional church was initially divided on the usefulness of vaccines, the leadership came to follow the best medical advice that they could find, including twice suspending or canceling the general church conference.Epidemics and pandemics have profoundly affected human history, a fact that we often forget in the modern world, where modern medicine has removed much of the fear of disease and the consequences of epidemics and pandemics.2 Historians are fortunate to have the insights of modern epidemiology to understand how disease spreads both today and in the past. We understand today what the people of the past did not understand. People in the past observed that some diseases were contagious, and they reacted by avoiding sick people or isolating them. With the rise of villages and cities, a formal practice of quarantine emerged where social pressure, legal efforts, and physical force were used to keep the sick isolated from the healthy. During the Middle Ages, European physicians objected to quarantines because they believed that disease arose from miasma (bad air), foul vapors that formed in swamps, sewage, or other sources. While it might be easy to mock the idea of miasma, physicians were trying to explain why some diseases arose without any apparent source of infection. Diseases spread by mosquitoes, rats, or other insects and animals seemed to arise from the very air. Quarantines did not make sense to many physicians because they often did not work, especially in cases of diseases like yellow fever. People of the time did not understand that it was mosquitoes spreading the sickness. Insects, rodents, microbes, and other sources often proved to be the vectors for different diseases. Despite the objections of physicians, quarantines and isolation remained useful tools to prevent the spread of diseases.The concept of “virgin soil” epidemics became invaluable for both physicians and historians to understand the present and the past. An example illuminates our current understanding of why Native Americans were so devastated by European diseases after contact with Europeans. Absent our modern understanding of disease, earlier historians assumed that the Native Americans were physically weaker in some way than the Europeans. Modern medicine explains that what made these diseases so devastating was not an innate genetic weakness among the American natives, but because the populations had not been exposed to the diseases before, hence “virgin soil.” In a virgin soil epidemic, everyone gets sick at the same time and there is no one to care for the ill, unlike an epidemic in Europe or Asia where many adults already possessed immunity from earlier epidemics. Those immune adults provided basic medical care. When there is no one to bring sick people water and food, keep them warm, and give love and emotional support, the result is a much higher mortality rate. While smallpox might kill three out of ten people infected in a population with immunized adults, eight out of ten or more might easily die in a virgin soil population. Native Americans suffered devastating population losses due to smallpox and other Old World diseases, such as influenza, typhus, measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough.3The reason that the Old World had so many more deadly diseases than the New World was the Old World had many more domesticated species.4 Many human diseases emerge as “spillover” from other animals, and many of the classic diseases of the past came from the close association of people in Eurasia and Africa with domesticated animals. New diseases often emerge from domesticated or wild animals today.5Advances in Europe transformed medicine in the last half of the nineteenth century. Louis Pasteur, a French microbiologist, showed that small microbes, visible only under a microscope, were disease-causing agents. That which we could not see was making us sick and to of that different diseases were were developed by people with or of the disease-causing so that the human immune could how to The immune the of and to to that and the has often been as a and because it is the of the that the is to and developed and used a vaccine on in to a and deadly last of the nineteenth and eight of the vaccines to diseases, since such in the high mortality that suffered from the of diseases were as deadly for adults had not been exposed to them earlier and in the nineteenth and from the introduction of and three the mortality rate from as high as half of all to such a small that people in the and other came to that all would to were during World War to be a in was the disease to have a The smallpox vaccine, on the related disease of was developed by the in the of the During the nineteenth some European countries that to were to for provided the for a of virgin because had been exposed to smallpox and developed immunity only after a with the smallpox were initially often by or from the smallpox of already infected into an or from the of had already been infected by the related disease of was also the that smallpox were by which were of as to emerged during the late nineteenth century. was much than one in one as to the three in ten by of deadly was that could spread and it became the of the a smallpox epidemic emerged in in by a sick a quarantine in The disease spread to other and called for a of the general public and that in the be to show of in order to attend The was to and during the and New they were to be free for this were and health and the health for The to smallpox in a An in the the as a of that is to force the people of and of all the and of was the of the out that the current of smallpox was did that the an to the people of this into objected to for people do not in the practice of into the of a and from a or human The a was an on the of the of and be for might be to as a to smallpox in where was and and was with the idea that such was a of human the by the to the explained that the believed in the of but objected to An there are many physicians the as not only but of of the had a on and it was the State of could of and other to the general for and that could be of An was a of that already in and in the in a in and the in a in but that could not be the Utah the this in the the The the of as Americans the of physicians, and Many people to to or for medical made the in Utah was that the to be and a of what on the to be or of was an among the Saints also at had to in of in and part of for from in was also a and was a medical to for Latter-day to and medical the of the in both New and to Utah in as the with a medical and in when was an medical was and for the and did not the of the church as an that the of the and one of in the First Presidency, a to church in the The of fear and the of smallpox in this has us to that the Latter-day Saints be for a time, until the is that of and where people are in of to this We this of to the people that they to prevent the spread of the by to it that are or have been exposed from public association with they be the of the the of we have and and our is that where care is as to and of the vaccine the is in that it not a it at as a it the of much of its by it to in the case of a a We are that there is a of opinion in the as the of this while we have it as a of we have to we to the as our and we and that the people of the to the care to the of are and be in only the that can be We in our own in making this and that it be a the was by the but was by It was the general through the that public health had been a but was it would not be a of the were when the the of the of medicine and vaccines with the of also called the and the and in which formed the and was by as a of the of the and in the First The on had not been by a of the First at the time. and had and was The did not have to do with any of these further is It is not that church among The of the nation also the of modern one of the that on as the than public was the that the church members and had in the with the and became as the Great Influenza pandemic in in the was by to Europe in World War with same It was called the flu because was and the of that the disease, and people assumed that it have in showed that it in the American from this disease than were by The disease through the in a of three from September to June The of disease the and but the Great Influenza was in that the of among adults, from late to That that out of Americans the disease arrived in as health an order in October this order as “all public including church and that and give serious to did so until 1919. was cases of flu, with from October to October The which three Latter-day was The of the was into a which was to the of the First and to a high more its after The the of and the for the October cases and where the flu were with that and were cases a and the disease had them because they were of World War on to in the which an in influenza were in on were to and were the were such as from to in all to in had been influenza in and more than in and that same were cases in the at had its quarantine a that this or in had to present a health or could and a or a of to a how were in the spread of the of the country, Utah experienced the Great Influenza in The in came in to this was as as the people and in the to were not as affected as Utah State now Utah State its on and in also a later. had a but because the became The disease as and while it in the the rate was more the from September to June Utah would have experienced from influenza and Utah experienced more from influenza and than the which were as That out of from the Great The own on from influenza a at in other out of The also that influenza in the of epidemic Native Americans in the than other to an of Utah had Native of influenza and That that of all Native Americans in Utah from influenza, by the this is an That out of Native Americans in Utah The the of of Native Americans in the which is out of The that these are as high as for in the during the same epidemic during the epidemic, that “all in because of Utah suffered more from the influenza epidemic than any other with the of and It is what is the for this since more Americans on a than the of by the same of the during the on 1919. the of was to the was with a than a in an as the and were under public including the of and in had been by order of the of medicine of the pandemic The Influenza of and the with the of why Americans to the did the pandemic to among that the pandemic in that of the and they did that the First World War and its the the nation more to the pandemic than in had more of from disease than but the of the experienced the because to disease so also that because the pandemic to kill adults, than the people of that and until after the of That was more of that time than While and were by the influenza, people did it on a in at the time and in of for influenza were developed in the they had to be in the to an understanding that there were more to influenza, including the of an influenza outbreaks were the the medical and the had experience with and influenza this many of the diseases had been through vaccines or the of but the of polio of had by the and vaccines were The disease the a that infected people did not show while were sick for a or than experienced weakness and called which the but for some the weakness affected and made it to The weakness often in a of and as with had since but for that are not polio outbreaks to in the century. was by polio as an and of the in could but of the time on a The outbreak of polio in with cases in the many of its or on a to In the people were by polio and under by polio at the rate of do not but Americans had used to the of vaccines for other diseases and not die or at the of a polio vaccine in and it on on and on became an as the for a on of the vaccine was and the remained in vaccine cases of polio and ten Despite this the vaccine was and for general in The vaccine was by the vaccine in the which proved to be more The vaccine was on while the vaccine used of polio to under one cases a after at to polio from the with the last case in a is close to polio vaccine September and the of June to people with the three to an official The of polio cases in Utah from in to in The population of Utah in was half of the population to be for The of polio have of the vaccines for the 1957 Asian flu, some the idea of case of the 1957 influenza epidemic was in in of that it was not to the World because an was not a of the formed The epidemic spread to became a pandemic as it spread the The was virgin soil for this influenza outbreaks were but this to be more it this was called the Asian the disease the was by a and was of the Department of Diseases at and to for a at and a a influenza in and and a from an infected American to and them to and Influenza was and the for such a vaccine so the made of from the Asian flu to in the During 1957 and from Asian flu was in making the Asian flu more than a for the in was a a from the of initially for and a to the at to the and of the American to in 1957, at the of its and and more than and human and vaccines for measles, and in the also vaccines for of and and the of that was “the of modern in the New was on the an of case of the Asian flu in the was in June to a the the of a vaccine to it were made by the of the and were on by of the on the and the The Asian flu pandemic in the from October 1957 to of the the of influenza as a and people experienced explains that the to not close or the nation were when many and other became the nation were postponed or canceled because were sick to article by the on September 1957, what made the Asian flu experience the time, epidemic has been and a The epidemic was to to The article a article on April 1957, that a flu outbreak in for the to from a in to to a of the a was from and and it as a of influenza, Americans have no or of the were to the of and and with other influenza after to three the had vaccines in of the vaccines in with the human in on late in the had of vaccines, of The of of the were and where the were The were and the from the the with the were with The its and did not need to be to a human immune to to the by could for and were to kill the and as the of the for ten after the the to vaccines, part of the to on influenza and make to at the time, the the vaccine in the The and much of the were to the pandemic since had developed as a the the Asian flu its through the population. The as with the spread of a to one only had been with or Americans would be of the Asian flu was to have of as high as had been in like sections of or a small of people had could easily The reminded readers that an epidemic could be more as had the of the of The vaccines were expected to ten to to and to be in were to be to on population to and other health other we such people 1957, a vaccine for the Asian flu. The New that had been to the while were and not to the and had a conference the that would the as as it was to like The had been exposed to different came with influenza, both the and general to that be had experienced a attack at a much higher for outbreak of Asian flu in Utah in when a of from to New in in where they were in the one article While a other people outbreak of the State Department of was by the Utah of a to to to on the Asian had been by the The department was at the influenza cases that had been the when the experienced cases during the that the public on because of the of an Asian outbreak where as many as one in people would be to from in or in a expected to in health would because the disease was not for but because of people at the same time, it is serious to to a of on to last and to a in the to that of a but with a higher a or September 1957, the of New and and The disease in of at in the of the and three in of in the of the The rate for also at that time. in as many people as the in influenza was in that such a mortality had not been since the influenza The in the and the with in and of by in the of the Church for the of the canceled church general conference, a of an the was by a from the First was and not with of for the flu was already in and to conference were that the conference had been The that the flu was was last of October in Utah had The to that were and The of influenza cases for the to was to only cases for the of the a in The epidemic was to be a because the were by a of from the Church provided an health authorities that the epidemic to be in the population but that it was in ten had been or to the Asian 1957, at the time of the Asian flu, the Utah State Department of that some diseases be such as diseases, different and like of diseases was not to the official but also or of which be of public had to be within Influenza cases were to a health and the of the disease on with influenza were expected to of The that isolation for influenza might not be or for official of and that the the for Asian flu in of influenza outbreaks Asian by showed that by 1957, of the in Utah had experienced an The only in Utah that had not experienced an outbreak were and and of Utah and and were also In no outbreaks in had of the where was had outbreaks in than half of its one of the in that Utah had experienced an while of other had outbreaks in of this in the of vaccines had been vaccine for was at a that for the have been at a in and that half of to be the Asian flu. That was had to for a The a in a of The that “the vaccine is of the in one is It is Asian including that at the the to a of both polio and Asian flu for of the rate of for the polio vaccine and [sic] for the flu general in the of the Asian flu had that Americans came with the disease during the last of That made the epidemic “the flu epidemic, from the of since the The vaccines for the Asian to to the to the was for and people with and was to that have another of Asian flu this some and no one can how influenza was proved because the Asian flu did a of in the of and cases the that in this was the influenza outbreak in in 1957, not in and while vaccines did not the of the disease on the population. of the of the vaccines, only one in Americans from the Asian many people in Utah is the experience of the Asian flu, experienced of which became part of the of the nation and provided the for the to epidemics. The World a Smallpox in and the in in Smallpox was the for from all of the and the only in human other and also infected as a for no were as out the world, people of a in the and many of the world, a on from the smallpox vaccine was part of The was to but when the in of vaccine, the medical to the that a only people had been exposed to in the diseases within the population. everyone on the had to be In smallpox was for by the American and to for epidemics and pandemics because it was more and such disease outbreaks after while for people to was often not example of this was calling the influenza epidemic of the flu, that was not the and often not under the of a were often by the source of the epidemic was as influenza to different of the used by our immune and by medical to different The Asian flu was When at New became with influenza in and one that the of influenza was the same as in influenza the outbreak was called the flu. that a of the influenza pandemic might the the to The pandemic to so the official actions were considered a by the and the People assumed that the had made a the from this not understanding that to prevent the spread of a disease as as when medical have the the of the disease, its how it and how deadly it a the that are to a disease, the more such are at the disease or its the Latter-day the church came to vaccines and did so for many The of the the church a of this members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to own through they to other in to and that have the of in the and other much and the of epidemics. are of our The church leadership and much of the had from the of vaccines to the medical that had what used to be called diseases.