Live Poster Session:
Thursday, July 29th 1:45pm – 2:45pm EDT
Zoom link: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/91719445025?pwd=NDdnL053cGc0Y3d6UFl4eXMrbXg4UT09
Abstract: Spanish Flu occurred a century ago, bringing 500 million infections and 50 million deaths worldwide. However, it has not been studied globally, and it is known as a “forgotten pandemic.” Thus, this study aimed to understand how public health policies during the Spanish Flu pandemic differed by prefecture and how they contributed to the differences in cases and deaths in Japan. We first created the dataset including monthly cases, deaths, and public health policies by prefecture recorded in the document published by the Home Ministry. Then, five policy variables – prevention awareness, facial coverings wearing, facial coverings supply, treatment, and vaccination – were created by quantifying policies written in the document. We first found that public health policies greatly differed by prefecture, indicating that Japan had a decentralized government at that time. Besides, prefectures with better prevention awareness policies had lower death rates during the second wave (September 1919 ~ July 1920) of the pandemic, suggesting the effectiveness of public health communication. Most importantly, this novel dataset would be beneficial for future studies addressing further policy analysis during the Spanish Flu in Japan.
Video: