Public health and safety: Remembering the swine flu outbreak of 1976

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In the later parts of winter of 1976, a novel influenza strain caused respiratory infection for hundreds of people in Fort Dix, located at the heart of New Jersey. In today's article, Capt. Martin Lloyd Sanders remembers the swine flu outbreak of 1976.

The virus that led to the outbreak seemed related to the virus that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, which infected and took the lives of more than 100 million people around the world. What makes it all the stranger was that in 1918, Fort Dix was also one of the virus' points of origin.

With history already giving a stern warning, World Health Organization officials started to plan for what could be a very deadly situation in the middle of winter.

Capt. Martin Lloyd Sanders recounts that while WHO's decision was to wait and see the pattern of the virus and track the numbers of infections, President Gerald Ford's administration was determined to vaccinate as many Americans as possible. By the end of March, no less than the President himself announced the government's plan, and emergency legislation was signed a few weeks later.

Image source: discovermagazine.com

Six months after that, political figures, including the President and celebrities, were shown being vaccinated. Within 10 months, a fourth of the U.S. population at the time had been vaccinated.

Thankfully, people only had mild flu symptoms, and there were no serious outbreaks outside the U.S. Until now, people debate the need for the mass vaccination, with some experts calling the whole situation a "fiasco" and "the pandemic that never was."

Learn more about Captain Martin Lloyd Sanders and his work by visiting this page.

Disclaimer: This site was prepared by Martin L. Sanders in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed are the author's own and do not reflect the views of the USPHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government.