Baseball great Babe Ruth beat Spanish Flu twice

In 1918, an influenza panic much like today’s COVID-19 struck the nation.

The Spanish flu, as it was often called, killed at least 50 million victims worldwide, and 675,000 in the U.S. Then-Surgeon General Rupert Blue summarized how suddenly the highly contagious, fast-spreading and deadly respiratory disease struck.

“People are stricken on the streets or while at work. First there is a chill, the...