Sooo, during the recent Swine Flu scare, I happened to learn that during the legendary 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic, Western Samoa, then newly under New Zealand military administration, suffered a 90% infection rate, the highest in the world, resulting in the death of 22% of the population. A lot of this was due to the general in charge of the island actually didn't allow any vaccines to be imported to the island (Sorry, don't know why). Also, the first case was brought there by infected monkeys.
Meanwhile, American Samoa avoided getting a single case by SHUTTTING. DOWN. EVERYTHING. And by that, I mean that the Governor at the time, Navy Commander John M. Poyer, closed the one seaport on the island.
It's true! I read it on Wikipedia! Except for that part about Western Samoa not allowing any imports of the vaccine, I heard that from Monica. And the part about the monkeys, which I just made up.
Longer post soon. With pictures!
9 months ago
