Face masks were a common sight in 1918 too, although advice about standing 6ft apart seems to have had little tractionMore than a century ago the world was gripped as a virus swept the globe, claiming thousands of lives. Then, as now, The Times was there to report it. “1,895 deaths last week” read the headline to a short story on page 3 about the outbreak in London. By today’s standards it seems oddly muted. It was one of many stories carried by The Times about the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which infected 500 million people, roughly a third of the global population, and killed as many as one in five of them.

Source: The Times March 24, 2020 17:03 UTC