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  • 2020-07-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Is This Cat Wearing a Mask During the 'Spanish Flu'? (en)
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  • In the summer of 2020, as many city and state officials urged citizens to wear masks in order to slow the spread of coronavirus, a photograph supposedly showing a family (and their cat) wearing masks during the 1918 flu epidemic started to circulate on social media: This is a genuine photograph of a family wearing masks during a flu epidemic, circa 1920. However, we're not entirely convinced that this cat is also wearing a mask. This photograph comes from the City of Dublin California Heritage Center. While specific details about the image are unknown (such as the identity of the pictured family), this image is accompanied by a caption noting that the photo was taken in Dublin, California around 1920, and shows a family taking precautions to protect themselves from a flu that had already killed millions of people: While it may appear, at first glance, as if this cat is wearing a mask, a closer inspection introduces doubt to this claim. When we zoom in on this image, it appears that the cat's nose and mouth are both visible, indicating that this may just be a cat with white fur on its face. We spoke with Tyler Phillips, the coordinator who oversees Dublin’s Heritage Park & Museums, in the hopes of putting an end to cat-mask-gate, but Phillips informed us that it was difficult to discern any additional details from the physical photograph, as it was too small and old. Phillips told us that there was much debate among the staff at the museum over whether or not the cat was wearing a mask, or if this was just a sort of optical illusion: While we can't say for certain if this cat is wearing a mask, it wasn't entirely unheard of for people to put masks on their animals during the 1918 flu epidemic. A 1919 article published in the Los Angeles Evening Express, for instance, noted that several people put masks on their dogs after the city of Pasadena issued an ordinance requiring the precautionary measure. This article also noted that people put masks on their cars, which may indicate that these pet owners were more focused on making a statement about the mandatory mask ordinance than they were about public health. The article read: While the dogs in Pasadena may have been wearing masks as some sort of social commentary, a dog in Seattle, Washington was just trying to be a good citizen. The Seattle Star reported in November 1918: (en)
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