Some vital health statistics 80 years later

"Everyone seems to be ailing these days," right?

That line would sound current in the past few weeks, where 2026 kicked off with a record surge in flu cases and an overhaul of vaccine requirements. But it's plucked from 80 years ago from the Jan. 7 editorial page, headlined “Some Vital Statistics.”

Back then, the Newsday board ran a regular feature posing public policy questions to Long Islanders. That week the question was, “Are sickness and colds more prevalent this year than last?” and a New Hyde Park auto painter, two Hempstead housewives, a Garden City fireman and a Westbury Navy officer gave takes that are poignant decades later.

The year was 1946, notably the first year the influenza inoculation was approved for civilian use. A year earlier it was approved for distribution in the military amid the finale of World War II, which framed the responses.

“Last winter while serving in the United States Army ... I was there during the monsoon season when there was more chance of infection that we ever even begin to think of here. Of course the Army used the latest drugs and the most up-to-date methods of preventative medicines to keep the GI healthy,” the Garden City fireman said. “The percentage of all diseases among American soldiers was very low.” He went on to credit the inoculations to have “helped immeasurably to build up our resistance” and to have kept him healthy this winter as well.

The feature’s other veteran who responded disagreed, seeing the postwar return as a factor for the miserable season. “There are literally millions of veterans returning ... getting away from the form of socialized medicine as practiced in the armed forces,” said the Westbury Navy officer. “It is the worst time of the year for them to return and the difference in climate makes them fall victims to influenza and the common cold, very readily.”

Fast-forward eight decades, and New York State Health Department data shows about 24.2% of eligible New Yorkers received their flu shot so far this season, 24.6% in Nassau County and 20.4% in Suffolk County.

A heavy cold season after the war had other implications as well. “With the handkerchief and paper shortage things are becoming critical,” said one Hempstead housewife. This was a lingering consequence of rationing and supply chain disruptions from World War II.

Another Hempstead housewife also pointed out economic impacts of the nonstop sickness. “My oldest son ... infected my other child, my husband and myself, causing bills and loss of working time for my husband.”

Comparable data collection does not date that far back, so there was no definitive answer to the original question posed about 1946. Today we know the answer: Since data collection started two decades ago, this December, the Department of Heath recorded the highest number of flu hospitalizations in one week and the most cases since at least 2004.

If you and everyone around you is sick, perhaps the remedy suggested in 1946 by a New Hyde Park auto painter has some appeal:

“I haven’t had a cold all this year ... because I drink whiskey,” he said. “I am not a drunk, or even anything near that classification, I much prefer the taste of a good shot of whiskey to the best damned cough syrup that was ever boiled up, brewed or distilled.”

— Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

This originally appeared in The Point, Opinion's daily newsletter. Subscribe here and browse past editions of The Point here.