In June 1918, an apparent public notice in the British papers informing people about Spanish flu symptoms was really an advertisement for Formamints, a tablet manufactured by a vitamin company. The ad claimed the mints were the “best means of preventing the infective processes” and that everyone, including children, should suck four or five tablets a day until they felt better. Then, as now, there was money to be made by touting fake “cures.” Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).
