Latest reports say we all may be asked to wear face masks when we go out in public, in yet another step to slow the spread of COVID-19. We’ve faced the issue before – 100 years ago. But mandating masks was one thing – enforcing it, quite another. In neighboring Washington, the state board of health mandated that everyone wear gauze masks as the Spanish flu pandemic raged … [Read more...] about Harmon’s Histories: Face masks were required as Spanish flu neared Missoula

Even before I began writing this story, I was attacked by a vicious earworm (a song you just can’t get out of your head). In researching the history of Missoula street names, I noticed that Orange Street at one time had four names. That’s all it took. Suddenly I was hearing the musical group America and the lyrics: “I've been through the desert on a horse with no name.” Only … [Read more...] about Harmon’s Histories: ‘I’ve been through Missoula on a street with four names’

Dr. Anthony Fauci is America’s “straight-talking” expert on the COVID-19 pandemic. The 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has been the soft-spoken, reliable professional addressing major health emergencies for political administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan. His view of the current situation, at a recent White … [Read more...] about Harmon’s Histories: Before Dr. Fauci, Typhoid Mary eluded epidemiologists for decades

The call went out last week for nurses needed by the Missoula City-County Health Department to care for our community during the COVID-19 crisis. Similar calls went out during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, this country’s last great pandemic. One University of Montana journalism co-ed volunteered as a nurse that fall, after classes were canceled and the campus was shut … [Read more...] about Harmon’s Histories: UM student recorded heartbreaking experiences as nurse during 1918 flu pandemic