One hundred and two years ago, in Grand Rapids, Michigan there was a difference. An important difference in its experience with the influenza pandemic that had begun to sneak up on the cities of America. This difference was the fact that the first case of the flu was Arthur H. Vandenberg, the publisher and editor of the Grand Rapids Herald, the city’s most-read newspaper.

Traveling on a fund-raising tour with a U.S. Navy band, Vandenberg …

On a world wide view, the flu pandemic of 1918 had 500 million cases, fully one-third of the people in the world. Today’s equivalent would be around 2 billion. 50 million sufferers died from the pandemic, 650,000 in the U.S. Sad to say, we may approach such numbers in 2020.

Fewer American servicemen died in combat during World War I than succumbed to influenza..

Turning to our Wolverine State, the death toll from …

This current time of pandemic, uncertainty, isolating, wearing masks and hospitals filling up seems like it has never happened before. But, it has. Michigan has gone through times like this before and come out the other side.

A hundred and three years ago, in 1917, people died mostly from heart disease, strokes or cancer, just like 2017. But in 1918, most folks died in Michigan from the flu.

The influenza pandemic that swept …