Exposed but not infected

Image: Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass. (ca. 1905-1920)

“In an attempt to approximate field conditions, ten of the [healthy] volunteers were taken to the influenza wards of the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, where each one was exposed to a deluge of respiratory disease organisms. Each of the ten shook hands with, sat by the bed of, talked with, and, at a distance of two inches, inhaled the normal exhalations and then the coughed exhalations of ten separate flu patients. Only one of the ten volunteers so exposed developed any kind of respiratory illness, and that was mild and probably not influenza.”

Alfred W. Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic (p. 267)