Did Woodstock happen amid pandemic?
Mckenzie Sadeghi and Matthew Brown
The claim: During the 1968 flu pandemic, no businesses were ordered to close and large events such as Woodstock were still able to be held
While much of the country has been asked to stay at home and practice social distancing, social media users have started comparing the nation’s current handling of the novel coronavirus to another deadly outbreak, the 1968 flu.
A post by the American Institute for Economic Research claims businesses were still operating during the 1968 flu and that large events such as the Woodstock music festival took place, with over 60,000 people in attendance.
“Nothing closed. Schools stayed open. All businesses did too,” the post reads. “You could go to the movies. You could go to bars and restaurants.” The post goes on to say that stock markets did not crash, no stay-at-home orders were enforced and no legislation was passed in Congress.
The post references stories from those who were present at the famous music event that took place on a dairy farm in New York in August 1969 and claims that Woodstock was planned in January 1969 “during the worse period of death.”
The post claims the only actions government took were collecting data and encouraging testing and vaccinations, adding that Congress and the media focused on the Vietnam War, civil rights movements and landing on the moon.
Memories from those who lived through 1968 pandemic
In a piece for the National Review, John Fund recalled his memories during the 1968 pandemic, saying he was just old enough to remember what was going on, as his family lived near the Travis Air Force Base in the Bay Area where soldiers returned home from Vietnam in 1968.
“It amazes me now, but I was able to give my oral report in class because the schools didn’t close in California — or anywhere else in the country,” Fund wrote. He said people practiced social distancing, rode buses less frequently and washed their hands but people were still going to work.
Marilyn Brown, owner of See the World Travel & Tours in Harbor City, California, shared her story with Travel Weekly about her experiences in 1968.
“Other than my coworkers bringing their own alcohol to wipe down their desks and wipe down pencils and not use pencils that clients had used, we didn’t do anything,” Brown told Travel Weekly.
A New York Times article from August 1969 reported that dozens of doctors were present at Woodstock to address “the potential threat of a virus cold or pneumonia epidemic among such a large gathering.”
People had already developed immunity against 1968 pandemic
The 1968 flu pandemic, commonly referred to as the “Hong Kong Flu,” was caused by an H3N2 avian influenza virus. The first recorded outbreak of the disease was in Hong Kong in the summer of 1968, though some experts theorize that the virus may have originated in mainland China.
The virus, which is still around today, is from a group of avian influenzas that also produced the 1957 flu pandemic’s H2N2 virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 million people globally — including 100,000 Americans -- died from the 1968 flu pandemic, which lasted into 1969-70.
A lack of robust testing undermines confidence in the exact death rate, but the researchers confirmed to USA TODAY that both pandemics were far below levels seen during the 1918 flu pandemic or the current SARS-COV-2 outbreak.
“The pandemics in 1957 and 1968, although associated with death rates greater than those for seasonal influenza epidemics, were far less devastating than the 1918 pandemic,” a 2013 CDC study on pandemic preparedness also found.
The severity of outbreaks of the 1968 flu varied greatly by region; while Japan mostly experienced small and isolated cases, the United States had a comparably severe outbreak on the West Coast in the winter of 1968.
Researchers speculate this variation was because of prior immunities that people already had because of exposure to the 1957 and possibly 1918 flu pandemics.
Because the H3N2 virus is prone to antigenic drift, it remains a common seasonal flu even after a vaccine was developed. Edwin Kilbourne, a renowned researcher on influenza prevention, wrote in 2006 that “the H3N2 subtype still reigns as the major and most troublesome influenza A virus in humans.”
The Wall Street Journal reportedthe virus came in two waves. The second outbreak, in the latter half of 1969, was deadlier than the first wave from the year prior.
“Governments and the media didn’t call for restrictions on public life and economic activity,” the article reads. “The disease was allowed to run through communities virtually unhindered until a vaccine became available to stop it about four months after it surfaced.”
Susan Craddock, a professor at the Institute for Global Studies of the University of Minnesota, told the WSJ that mortality rates for the 1968 pandemic were much lower than current mortality rates from COVID-19.
Social distancing was also not an idea among public health officials at the time.
Our Rating: True
The Woodstock festival of 1969 did occur amid a global pandemic and no stayat-home orders were enforced. However, the concept of social distancing was not yet accepted practice among public health experts and the 1968 flu pandemic was not as deadly as other diseases. Lawmakers also did not face serious public pressure to slow the virus, as the nation’s attention was focused elsewhere. We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research.
Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.