UK survivor of Spanish flu dies from coronavirus aged 108

Hilda Churchill

A 108-year-old woman and survivor of the 1918 Spanish flu is thought to have become the oldest victim of coronavirus in the UK.

Hilda Churchill died in a Salford care home on Saturday, hours after testing positive for Covid-19 and just eight days before her 109th birthday.

She is the oldest victim of the virus to be named in the UK. She was born in 1911, the year before the Titanic sank and three years before the start of the first world war. It was also seven years before the Spanish flu pandemic, which infected 500 million worldwide, and killed her sister.

The coronavirus pandemic had prompted Churchill to reminisce about the Spanish flu, according to her grandson, Anthony Churchill. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said: “As I was telling her about this coronavirus she started talking about the Spanish

flu and she remembered how bad that was.”

She and most of her family in their home in Crewe became infected with the Spanish flu, including her father, who collapsed in the street, she recalled. They all survived apart from her 12-month-old baby sister. “Grandma said she remembered a small box being put in a carriage,” her grandson said.

He added: “She was saying how amazing it is that something you can’t see can be so devastating.”

He said his grandmother, a seamstress who moved to Salford during the Great Depression to find work, had generally been in good health until recently. “She never understood how she got so old. I think it was the hard work that kept her going. That and good genes.” She had four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Other recent coronavirus victims to be named include Adil El Tayar, 63, the first working NHS surgeon to die from the disease. He died on Wednesday at West Middlesex university hospital in London, his family said. He had been volunteering in A&E departments in the

Midlands to help the NHS cope with the virus.

“He wanted to be deployed where he would be most useful in the crisis,” said his cousin, the British-Sudanese journalist Zeinab Badawi.

A total of 1,228 patients have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, it was announced, up from 1,019 the day before.

It has also emerged that a 33-year-old hospital pharmacist, Pooja Sharma, died from the virus on Thursday, a day after it claimed the life of her father, Sudhir Sharma, 61, a Heathrow immigration officer. Pooja Sharma worked at Eastbourne district general hospital in East Sussex.

Lara Stacey Young, a nurse in the area, paid tribute to her on Facebook. She wrote: “So many people will be devastated, she was such a lovely soul.”

Amarjit Aujla, a friend from childhood, said she was devastated by the news. She wrote: “Her laughter was contagious and her random calls made my day. From when we were in primary school until we last spoke two weeks ago, you gave me nothing but love, support and a tummy ache with all the laughter.”

It is unclear whether she saw her father before contracting the virus. Colleagues of Pooja’s father said he had health problems and had not been on duty at Heathrow since early January. Nick Jariwalla, the director of Border Force Heathrow, said: “Sudhir was a very well-respected, kind and experienced officer. He will be greatly missed by everyone.”

Comment: The Problem With China’s Victory Lap

A woman wearing a face mask is seen behind a barrier blocking an entrance to a residential area in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 28, 2020

On January 24, a few days after the United States confirmed its first coronavirus case, President Donald Trump expressed his gratitude for China’s “efforts and transparency” in combatting a virus that the country’s leadership tried for weeks to cover up. On behalf of the American people, Trump wrote, “I want to thank President Xi!”

By then, the pandemic was on its way to wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy and its citizens’ way of life—not least because of the actions of Xi Jinping’s own government. Yet in February, Trump again praised for Xi on Twitter, writing that “he is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus … Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation.” 

Since then, cases have skyrocketed across the United States, which now has the highest number of confirmed cases anywhere in the world, with more than 100,000 people infected. Yet Trump’s comments reflect a propaganda victory for Xi. 

And as the U.S. approaches the height of its outbreak, scrambling to spend trillions of dollars to save its economy, asking other countries to make up for its device shortages, soliciting doctors from overseas, and still struggling to bring stranded citizens home, it has no credible claim to be the responsible superpower leading everyone out of the crisis.

Xi, the ascendant authoritarian with a massive surveillance state and a ruthless security apparatus at his disposal, wants to pick up the mantle.

A mask-clad auxiliary police officer looks on in Wuhan, China, on March 29, a day after travel restrictions into the city were eased following two months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

With combatting the virus the most immediate concern, the U.S. has not figured out how to compel China to own up to its shortcomings in managing this crisis—ham-handed attempts to brand the disease the “Chinese virus” notwithstanding. Xi is now maneuvering for a propaganda and diplomatic victory, offering aid and advice around the world.

The U.S., meanwhile, is entering what’s perhaps the darkest phase of its own crisis—its domestic problems hobbling it from providing significant international aid or coordinating a comprehensive response. (The U.S. announced on Thursday that it had made available $274 million in emergency aid to 64 countries.)

“On the global stage, [China is] hoping to fill the void of U.S. leadership,” Rush Doshi, the director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Brookings Institution, told me. “They have a long way to go, but they’re trying."

Staff members move barriers in front of a railway station of Wuhan on the first day of inbound train services resumed following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Wuhan of Hubei province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak, March 28, 2020.

Never mind that China put the world in this predicament in the first place. Two months into a massive societal lockdown in China, with new cases of the disease slowing down—at least by official statistics—Xi is ready to declare victory at home.

He made a valedictory visit to Wuhan, the epicenter of the country’s outbreak, in mid-March. The lockdown on the surrounding province has lifted; public transit is running in Wuhan again. Xi has also sent millions of masks and thousands of ventilators to Europe, getting praise from the Italian foreign minister for helping “save lives in the first stages of the emergency.” As recently as yesterday, Xi offered Chinese support to the U.S. in a phone call with Trump.

“This is happening all around the world now,” says David Shullman, a China expert at the International Republican Institute. “[There] is a really long list of places where China is offering this equipment and assistance … It also comes with a message that, ‘Look what’s happening in the established democracies.’” 

Chinese-backed accounts have flooded Twitter with praise for the country’s response; a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has pushed the false claim that the U.S. Army brought the disease to China; and Xi has encouraged Chinese media to push positive stories about China’s response. 

People wearing face masks walk on a bridge in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 28, 2020

But both China’s purported success against the virus, and its help to others in similar circumstances, may prove less than meets the eye. For one thing, the Chinese model of mass roundups of citizens and extensive surveillance with no real public-health purpose is not, or shouldn’t be, exportable to democracies—and democracies like South Korea and Taiwan have, through their own successes against the virus, proved that authoritarianism is not the required ingredient.

The crackdown may not even have succeeded as well as China wants to advertise. Nurses in Wuhan have told the Financial Times of “hidden infections” going unreported in China’s official statistics. “If China prematurely declares victory and they’re wrong, that could lead to a second wave of infections,” Doshi said. “It’s quite sobering to think what that would mean for the world’s pandemic response and the global economy.”

Most immediately, it could mean that the coronavirus ground zero continues to generate and export more cases.

Desperate countries were happy to accept Chinese help. But it hasn’t always provided the lifesaving equipment expected. In Ukraine, for example, Andrey Stavnitser, who is helping coordinate the coronavirus response in the Odessa region, told the Atlantic Council that one center there ordered thousands of coronavirus tests from China at great expense—only to receive “ordinary flu tests” that had “nothing to do with coronavirus.”

Reuters reporter Brenda Goh receives a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 28, 2020

The real short-term risk of China’s leadership exercise is that, should the country make the calculation to prize its economic health over public-safety concerns, other countries contending with the pandemic’s economic devastation may find themselves tempted to follow suit.

Trump has already said he’d like to get the United States back to work by Easter, about three weeks from now—though China’s lockdown lasted months.

As the crisis drags on, more and more leaders will find themselves facing gruesome calculations about the severe economic toll of keeping a low death toll. At that point, the China model may look even more tempting.

Virus causes surge in WW II references, but is it merited?

In this March 24, 1938, file photo, German standard bearers parade past Maj. Gen. Fedor von Bock, commander of all armed forces in the Austrian territory, center, on grandstand on the Kingstrasse in front of the Memorial of Honor, as the troops reach Vienna. Beside him wearing overcoat is Dr. Seysz Incuart. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus

In the first week of June 2019, World War II was on many people's minds.

It was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a week filled with events honoring the sacrifice and blood of tens of thousands of Allied soldiers that was spilled on the French beaches. Leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France — and then-foe and now ally Germany — gathered in a rare show of unity in Normandy, where the tide of the war was so decisively turned.

In this March 22, 2020, file photo, a cyclist rides his bicycle down the middle of a main road in downtown New York. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus.

Now, nine months later, World War II references are once again being heard daily — because of the coronavirus.

The comparison is everywhere in recent days: The world is facing the most serious threat and challenge since the last truly global war. Various leaders have cited World War II in their virus-related remarks. There is pervasive fear that an ‘’invisible enemy'' could cause a severe escalation in deaths, ravage the global economy, hamper food supply and spark social unrest.

In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a news conference about the new coronavirus, in Berlin. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus

And there's pushback, too — that the World War II reference is unhelpful and only adds to the fear.

But compare these past frightening few weeks with this roll call of names, places and battles: Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. Auschwitz and Pearl Harbor and Midway and Stalingrad. The siege of Leningrad, the German blitz of London and the Allied firebombing of Dresden. The final, nuclear chapters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And compare the utter destruction of cities to empty streets now. Or the death tolls: 85 million then, over 18,000 now, though that latter figure is expected to multiply.

Do the World War II comparisons really hold up, or is it just a convenient metaphor? Here's a look at the connections between the two eras — and the fundamental differences as well.

WORLD LEADERS' RALLYING CALLS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was born the decade after the Nazis' defeat and grew up in East Germany feeling the war's direct consequences. Last week, in a rare address to her nation, she stared into the camera with this appeal: "Since German unification — no, since the Second World War — there has been no challenge to our nation that has demanded such a degree of common and united action."

In this Wednesday, March 18, 2020, file photo, a woman wearing a protective face mask to prevent the new coronavirus outbreak walks by a propaganda poster with a word "Wear" outside a residential building in Beijing. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus.

 U.S. President Donald Trump went from dismissing the virus as a ’’hoax”" to declaring himself a ‘’wartme president’’ as he cited the 70-year-old Defense Production Act to battle shortages in desperately needed medical supplies like masks and ventilators as more and more Americans become stricken. He hasn’t actually used the federal law yet in spite of strong calls from, among others, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to do so immediately.

In this Thursday, March 19, 2020, file photo, Spanish UME (Emergency Army Unit) soldiers disinfect a terminal to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus at a Barcelona airport in Spain. World War II references are now heard daily — not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus.

Queen Elizabeth, speaking in recent days, seemed to allude to her own teenage years in World War II when she served as a mechanic and drove military trucks as part of the auxiliary territorial armed services in Britain. “At times such as these, I am reminded that our nation’s history has been forged by people and communities coming together to work as one,” she said.

Italy has suffered more deaths than any other nation from the virus so far. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte went on TV late Saturday, announcing that he was tightening the country’s lockdown and shutting down all production facilities except those providing essential goods and services. He said: “We are facing the most serious crisis that the country has experienced since World War II.”

In this Thursday, March 19, 2020, file photo, medical personnel work in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Brescia, Italy. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus.

DEATH TOLLS AND DEVASTATION

In World War II, 3% of the world's population died; of an estimated 2.3 billion people, 85 million perished. With a current global populace of some 7.7 billion, a similar death toll from the pandemic would mean 231 million dead. Some experts have warned of tens of millions dying from the virus if lockdown and social-distancing measures are not adhered to.

But there is no endless bombardment from above across vast swaths of the earth, nor a global human tide of misery fleeing those bombs and massacres, nor concentration camps, nor multiple prisoner of war camps with forced labor.

In this Tuesday, March 3, 2020, file photo, a large crowd wearing masks commutes through Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. World War II references are now heard daily, not because another momentous 75th anniversary, Victory in Europe Day approaches in May but because of the coronavirus

Entire cities and towns were razed in World War II. Oradour-sur-Glane, France — where the Nazis carried out the worst massacre of civilians on French territory in 1944 — is a ghost town, preserved today in ruin as Nazis left it. More than 600 people, including nearly 250 children, were slaughtered.

RESCUE PLANS, EMPLOYMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Governments are showing varying degrees of commitment to keeping critical industries and the working population afloat in the time of COVID-19. Rescue plans projected by several Western countries bear a resemblance to the Marshall Plan, the $15 billion U.S. initiative that aided European recovery after World War II.

In several countries, as many men fought overseas in World War II, women were called upon to bolster the workforce and, in particular, help to produce armaments. Now the key workers across the world are the doctors, nurses, caregivers and cleaners — and those who can are told to work from home to avoid spreading the virus.

That work and the economies it sustains, like much else in the modern world, is dependent on one key connector: internet service. If that cratered, the next phase of crisis could be one triggered not by developments in technology — such as the atomic bomb — but simply by the sudden lack of it.

For human beings who lived through World War II, such a notion would seem unimaginable.

Monday’s order also banned “non-essential social gatherings” where physical distancing of six feet could not be maintained. Oregonians may leave their houses, and engage in exercise and outdoor recreation, but only if the same physical distancing was possible. Related: Trump signals change in coronavirus strategy that could clash with health experts Disobeying the laws will be a misdemeanor offense. Brown had been the subject of criticism and incredulity from health authorities and other elected officials – many fellow Democrats – after she failed last week to follow the lead of states such as California and New York in enforcing strict physical distancing. Over the weekend, when Portlanders flooded small beachside communities in warm spring weather, the criticism became even more pointed. On Sunday, Brown was given an unprecedented ultimatum by the mayor of Portland to shut the state down.

In this May 27, 2019, file photo, birds fly as Mount Everest is seen from Namche Bajar, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. The closure of Mount Everest will have significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and other personnel who make their living during this short climbing window. It also affects the clients who paid big money and expedition guides who are still on the hook for expenses. They all agree it was the right decision in light of the coronavirus.

Apa Sherpa knows firsthand all the risks of climbing Mount Everest. He's been to the summit 21 times.

The potential for a COVID-19 outbreak at base camp had him just as fearful as a blizzard or cracking ice.

The 60-year-old mountaineer from Nepal who now lives in Salt Lake City applauded the decision to shut down the routes to the top of the famed Himalayan mountain over concerns about the new coronavirus.

That meant Sherpa didn't have to worry about the health of anyone on the mountain, including his niece, nephew and cousin as they follow in his Everest-climbing footsteps.

In this May 9, 2019, file photo, Apa Sherpa gestures while walking with members of his foundation in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 60-year-old mountaineer from Nepal who now lives in Salt Lake City applauded the decision to shut down the routes to the top of the famed Himalayan mountain over concerns about the new coronavirus. That meant Sherpa didn't have to worry about the health of anyone on the mountain, including his niece, nephew and cousin as they follow in his Everest-climbing footsteps. Now, he has another fear: How will those who work in the shadow of Everest make ends meet?

Now, he has another fear: How will those who work in the shadow of Everest make ends meet?

The closure has significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and others who make their living during the short climbing window.

"I just feel bad," said Apa Sherpa, who established a foundation to help Nepalese students with their education. “For everyone.”

Phurba Ongel was all set for spring work guiding western climbers to the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) Everest summit when he heard the news nearly two weeks ago. He has already scaled Everest nine times and makes about $7,000 per season.

That was money he desperately needs for his two sons' school, rent and groceries.

In this Friday, April 10, 2015, file photo, a porter carries crates containing oxygen tanks, with Mt Lingtren seen behind left, and Mt. Khumbutse, right, on his way towards Everest Base Camp, at Lobuche, Nepal. China shut down the northern route through Tibet due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 12. A day later, expeditions to the Nepal side were closed, too. The closure of Mount Everest will have significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and other personnel who make their living during the short climbing window.

“Now," Ongel said, "I don't have much.”

Also losing money are clients, who dole out anywhere between $35,000 to $85,000 to be led up the mountain, and expedition operators who have expenses to pay despite the closure.

"It is devastating for the tourism industry in Nepal and abroad," said Lukas Furtenbach, a mountaineering guide and founder of Furtenbach Adventures. “Many businesses will not survive this.”

China s hut down the northern route through Tibet due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 12. A day later, expeditions to the Nepal side were closed, too. Everest straddles the border between Nepal and China and can be climbed from both sides.

By shutting down the passage through the south route of Everest, the Nepal government stands to lose some $4 million in permits alone. There are thousands of people who depend on the money spent by climbers in Nepal.

"They have no income right now. Nothing," Apa Sherpa said. “But the government made the right decision. The lives are more important.”

According to Ang Tshering, a mountaineering expert in Nepal, the mountaineering industry brings in about $300,000 annually — and most of it during the spring climbing season that begins in March and ends in May.

“The closure of the mountains has made thousands of people jobless in the mountaineering community," Tshering said. 

In this Tuesday, March 24, 2015, file photo, porters with supplies for trekkers head towards Namche, in Zamphute, a village in Nepal. The closure of Mount Everest will have significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and other personnel who make their living during the short climbing window.

It's setting up a potentially risky proposition in 2021 — overcrowding on the mountain. There will be a backlog of clients eager to make the trek, along with a new batch of climbers.

Last May, a climber snapped a memorable photo from a line with dozens of hikers in colorful winter gear that snaked into the sky. Climbers were crammed along a sharp-edged ridge above South Col, with a 7,000-foot (2,133-meter) drop on either side, all clipped onto a single line of rope, trudging toward the top of the world.

In this Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015, file photo, porters rest carrying the load of trekkers making their way back from Everest Base Camp, near Shomare, Nepal. The closure of Mount Everest will have significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and other personnel who make their living during this short climbing window.

“It would be very important that Nepal puts reasonable regulations in place for operators and climbers," said Furtenbach, who resides in Austria and spends time at Lake Tahoe. "Otherwise, I see that risk for a total mess next year.”

For the Sherpas, it's about finding a way to hang on after their source of income was halted. They're the backbone of an expedition — the first to reach Everest each climbing season and the last to leave. They set up the camps, carry the equipment and cook the food for climbing parties. They fix the ropes and ladders over the crevasses and ice-falls that enable mountaineers to scale the peak.

In this March 28, 2016, file photo, a porter walks with a massive load towards Everest Base camp near Lobuche, Nepal. The closure of Mount Everest due to the coronavirus will have significant financial ramifications for the local Sherpas, cooks, porters and other personnel who make their living during the short climbing window. There are thousands of people who depend on the money spent by climbers in Nepal.

Generally, a Sherpa can earn $10,000 or more should they summit. Porters or cooks at the mountaineers' camps average between $3,000 and $5,000 during their three months of work. That's a significant amount compared with Nepal's $1,035 annual per capita income.

But it's treacherous work.

That's why Apa Sherpa started his foundation -- to give young kids another route.

Born into poverty and with a modest education, he had no choice but to climb. By the age of 12 he was working on climbing expeditions. At age 30, he summited Everest for the first time. He had earned the nickname “Super Sherpa” before retiring in 2011.

His organization — the Apa Sherpa Foundation — attempts to provide hot meals to students at the Ghat School in the Khumbu region. It also pays the salary of six teachers in Thame and provides school supplies such as computers. He's hoping to expand the foundation's reach into other schools in Nepal.

“If I'm still in Nepal, I have no choice. I would have to climb,” said Sherpa, who moved to the U.S. in 2006. “I have a choice here in America. I don't have to take a risk. I'm just trying to help."

The climbing community has seen an interruption on Everest before: An earthquake-triggered avalanche killed 19 at the base camp in 2015 and another avalanche over the dreaded Khumbu Icefall in 2014 killed 16 Nepali workers.

Apa Sherpa shuddered at the thought of anyone being at base camp in the midst of the coronavirus. He has plenty of family that still serve as mountain guides.

For most people, COVID-19 causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, with the vast majority recovering in about two weeks. But anything respiratory can have dire consequence at base camp, where there are climbers scattered around in tents as they acclimate.

"At high altitude our respiratory systems are incredibly distressed and challenged," said Adrian Ballinger, t he founder of Alpenglow Expeditions. “We do know the coronavirus, which affects the respiratory system and can lead to pneumonia, would absolutely be much more serious and lead to potentially serious consequences and fatalities much more quickly at altitude.”

Ballinger had 11 clients scheduled for the summit team to the Tibet side of Everest, along with seven foreign mountain guides and 18 Sherpas.

He's trying to lessen their financial hardships as best he can. Same with Garrett Madison, a guide based out of Seattle who was scheduled to lead his 14th Everest expedition.

“This is a tough time for sure. Thankfully we've saved up a rainy day fund to weather the storm,” Madison said. “With Everest canceled (our largest program of the year), as well as all other programs in jeopardy because of travel bans, we don't know when we can resume normal operations of our programs.”

To celebrate recently turning 50, Graham Cooper of Piedmont, California, planned to summit Everest from the Tibet side with Ballinger. It was a bucket-list item for Cooper.

To prepare, he slept in an oxygen tent to simulate the thin air. He also ventured to Lake Tahoe, where he trained by hiking up the snow-packed slopes and skiing down.

Then, he received the text he was fearing: No trip. The mountain was closed.

Sure, he was disappointed. But he also understood.

"It's not the end of the world," Cooper said. “There's always next year.”