THE GREAT SUP-PRESS.

NZ Truth, Issue 701, 23 November 1918, Page 5

THE GREAT SUP-PRESS.

The "Star's" "Mild" Epidemic. Six Hundred Deaths Admitted. When the "flu" broke out m Auckland and the cases reported became so numerous and virulent that people began to doubt whether the medical practitioners m the city had rightly diagnosed the disease, and letters began to pour m on Uhe "day-lies," complaining that the sickness had become epidemic, the N "Evening Star" pooh-poohed their fears and referred to tho illness as a. "mild" visitation. Yet this same rag had the audacity to publish the following on Tuesday evening 1: — A number of -svikl rumors have been circulated regarding the number of deaths m Auckland from the epidemic, the result, as a rule, of a too vivid imagination. .Roughly speaking, some 300 people have.been interred at the Waikumete Cemetery. Allowing half that number at each of the other two brings the total somewhere m the vicinity of 600. Even this number may be excessive, as included with that total would be tlhe * ordinary death rate, which is about 120 per month. This from a paper which, m its issue of October 23, declared that there was 1 NO "SERIOUS EPIDEMIC" m Auckland I On that date the "Star" stated: The epidemic of influenza is at its height m Auckland now, but there

is nothing at all serious m the ailment. On tihe same day m a report headed. " 'Flu' m the Schools. — A Mild Epidemic," it credited the District Health Officer with saying that: Medical men had not hesitated m classing the present epidemic as a mild one. "Truth" unhesitatingly asserts that it was thiese "mild" statements about a most virulent disease which lulled a too trusting" public into a sense of false' security, and prevented them from taking those precautionary steps which otherwise they would have hasteried to adopt had they been told the bare, if painful., truth. "A mild ailment" "A. mild Epidemic!!" "Not a Serious Rpiclemic! ! ! " And the paper that repeated this ignorant cuckoocry, now shamefacedly admits that the disease so designated Jias accounted for GOO people — men and women, who a few short days ago were pulsing with life and. health and hope. That is a fearful total. And yet "Truth" is afraid that it is an altogether too sanguine estimate. Workers on the Citizens' Committee who ar,e daily, ay, hourly coming m contact with the sick and dying, say tihat they have no desire to create a panic, but that the toll of tho disease must be somewhere m the vicinity of DOUBLE THE NUMBER STATED. Had the newspapers spoken out boldly at first and warned tho people of the growing- danger, many who treated the matter lightly and afterwards fell victims to tho ravages of the disease, m all probability would have been still alive and lending their muchneeded aid m fighting the disease and saving others.