Flu Moves East

Seven weeks ago, a wave of mild influenza swept through California, along the west coast, east to Louisiana. Some experts predicted that the epidemic would reach the east coast with "the speed of a plane." They were wrong. The epidemic did not move east until last fortnight. By week's end it had downed at least 100,000 people, mostly in the South and on the Atlantic seaboard.

> The epidemic struck with full force in the Carolinas, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas. In Atlanta, Ga. flu kept 20,000 children from school. Schools were closed in 16 counties in North Carolina.

> Also hard hit was New England, with tens of thousands sick in Massachusetts, many schools closed in central Maine. Health Commissioner Stanley Hart Osborn of Connecticut estimated that 50% of school children in the State would be downed before the epidemic was over. Several defense industries in Connecticut were hampered by illness; at Winchester Repeating Arms in New Haven 1,200 workers out of 7,500 were absent; many were sick in Hartford's Colt's Patent Fire Arms and United Aircraft Corp.

> New York City still enjoyed good health. So far, its cases of flu had been only slightly above average. Busiest physician in the city was Dr. Frank Lappin Horsfall of the Rockefeller Institute whose new vaccine is being tried on thousands of human guinea pigs throughout the U. S. When given during an epidemic, or just before, it apparently confers no protection.

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Rochester, N. Y. had a scare six weeks ago, when water from the dirty Genesee River was mistakenly turned into the city's water pipes. Since then there have been bellyaches, some dysentery, three cases of typhoid, claims of $173,000 filed against the city.

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