*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Johnny Smith Johnny Smith, asssociate professor in the School of History and Sociology, was quoted in the article "Lessons from 1918: Old Pandemic is a Murky Guide for Sports" on May 21, 2020 from the Associated Press.
Smith, whose book War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War, written with Randy Roberts of Purdue University, has become especially relevant in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, spoke to how sports fans could approach the idea of large crowds at games and whether there were parallels to the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Excerpt:
“I think a lot of people will hesitate to attend sporting events as spectators until there is a proven vaccine,” Georgia Tech professor of sports history Johnny Smith said.
“I think there are parallels in what we can learn from 1918 in terms of how we respond to a pandemic,” Smith added. “The cities that were hesitant and didn’t impose closure orders as quickly had far more fatalities. I think the lesson we can draw in general from 1918 about how to respond to a pandemic is that closure orders and social distancing is effective.”
