The Atlanta Lawyer June/July 2020 Vol. 19, No. 1 | Page 15

IN THE PROFESSION
Much like pandemic-level diseases like COVID-19,
privacy concerns do not discriminate based on a person’s profession, and
neither of these concerns are going away.
colds on the growing use of steam heat.)
Camp Gordon
The military began building a temporary
infantry training camp in Chamblee in
1917. In December 1918, it changed to a
demobilization center as peace seemed to be
breaking out. The base closed in 1919 and
was abandoned a year later.
It was huge. The base consisted of 1,435
buildings spread over 4,672 acres. Peachtree
DeKalb Airport now sits on a major portion
of the camp site, but the Army claimed
a larger tract of 11,303 acres. Primary
facilities, such as the base hospital and the
officers’ training school, were located in
areas adjacent to the present PDA campus.
In addition, the camp operated a 6000 acre
artillery range in Cobb County just south of
Marietta. At its peak, 41,162 soldiers trained
at the Chamblee facility. Georgia Railway &
Power Company built a double track line
from the city to accommodate commuting.
Soldiers in the Second Infantry Replacement
Regiment started showing symptoms of
influenza in early September, 1918. A
lockdown order affecting soldiers exhibiting
influenza symptoms went into effect on
September 18. Eventually, entire units were
quarantined when one member took ill. By
the end of September, the camp reported
1,893 cases of Spanish flu.
Soldiers slept outdoors, 50 feet apart,
gargled regularly, irrigated nasal passages,
and otherwise wore masks. The Army
modified the quarantine at Camp Gordon
on October 15, claiming that the disease no
longer constituted a menace to troops. New
troops were still required to wear masks
and quarantined for ten days. As a result,
Camp Gordon ended up with around 6,000
flu cases, a smaller percentage of infections
than those founds in Atlanta.
No Cause for Alarm
The Atlanta city health officer, Dr. J. P.
Kennedy, assured citizens at the beginning
of October that there were few cases of
influenza and only one death. That would
change. Kennedy noted that Atlanta was a
transportation hub funneling travelers from
infected cities to the area, so he expected a
wave of infections.
Dr. T. F. Abercrombie, secretary of the state
board of health, decided that the decision
to quarantine should be made by local
officials. Kennedy and the Atlanta Board of
Health closed all schools, libraries, churches,
and places of entertainment on October 7.
The Atlanta City Council quickly passed
a resolution supporting the decision to
close. Fulton County imposed the same
restrictions later in the day.
On October 20 the state board of health
reported 3,435 new cases of flu and 69
deaths throughout the state in the past 24
hours. Abercrombie told the The Atlanta
Constitution, “It is so much better in Georgia
than in most of the other states affected, that
we have no cause for alarm.” Kennedy, the
city health officer, reported 7 deaths and
1,167 cases of flu during the same time. A
problem with the numbers, according to
Dr. William Brady, a syndicated columnist
carried by The Atlanta Constitution, results
from the absence of any laboratory method
to differentiate the Spanish flu from colds
or other flu-like maladies: “It is purely a
matter of the attending physician's judgment
whether the illness shall be judged ‘influenza’
or not.”
Kennedy thought that everything, except
schools, could re-open by October 24.
The Board of Health voted to continue
the quarantine despite the advice. Mayor
Candler had been pushing to allow
businesses to return to normal schedules. He
called a special meeting of the City Council
that voted to open the city on October 26,
effectively overruling the Board of Health.
Conversely, officials canceled the Georgia
State Fair scheduled to open on October 3.
The Southeastern Fair opened but required
everyone to wear masks. “The entire grounds
will resemble a Turkish harem,” The Atlanta
Journal predicted. The fair attracted as many
as 25,000 Atlantans a day.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, The
Atlanta Constitution reported on November
23 that according to Kennedy, “While
Decatur and Kirkwood are apparently
having a return of the influenza trouble,
there appears to be no indications in Atlanta
which would give cause for uneasiness here.”
A few weeks later, Kennedy admitted that
influenza had been on the increase for three
weeks. 76 died in the week ending December
7; 75 died the previous week.
Atlanta exhibited much lower infection and
death rates than other cities throughout
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