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Lessons Ignored: Children and Pandemics
Cynthia Connolly1, Janet Golden1
1Cynthia Connolly is with the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia. Janet Golden (retired) was formerly with the Department of History, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, NJ.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- History of Medicine
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Children's health needs are often overlooked during pandemics.
- Historical scholarship rarely centers children's experiences during major health crises.
- Pandemics reveal critical gaps in national health and welfare infrastructure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine historical responses to children's needs during the 1918 pandemic in Philadelphia.
- To analyze the lasting impact of inadequate child policy infrastructure on subsequent pandemics.
- To highlight the persistent neglect of children's needs during public health emergencies.
Main Methods:
- Comparative historical analysis of pandemic responses.
- Examination of public health and welfare records from 1918 and COVID-19.
- Case study focusing on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Main Results:
- Philadelphia's response to children's needs in 1918 was insufficient, lacking dedicated policy infrastructure.
- This historical deficit left the city ill-equipped to address children's needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Children's vulnerability and lack of political influence contributed to their marginalization during both pandemics.
Conclusions:
- A century of pandemics shows a consistent failure to prioritize children's health and welfare.
- The absence of robust child-focused public policy infrastructure exacerbates vulnerabilities during health crises.
- Addressing systemic neglect requires dedicated child-centered policies and historical recognition of their needs.
Abstract:
Children became sick and died during pandemics roughly 100 years apart, but they are rarely the central focus of historical scholarship. Because children were not the largest group of victims in the 1918 pandemic or in the COVID-19 pandemic and because of their lack of political capital, their needs received little attention. Both pandemics exposed the many holes in the nation's health and welfare infrastructure. We examine responses to children's needs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the peak pandemic year of 1918 and then show how this legacy of the lack of any child policy infrastructure left the city underresourced during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(9):985-990. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307334).
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