History Buff Sees Echo of 1918 Spanish Flu in Canada's Latest 'Travel Restrictions to Canada' Rule
A history professor is drawing eerie parallels between today's "travel restrictions to Canada" and the 1918 Spanish Flu, when Canada banned non-essential trains from the US for months. Like then, the latest curbs target American hotspots, but border towns are seeing a repeat of the 1918 "quarantine evasion" mania—with smugglers charging $500 a head for illegal crossings, just like bootleggers did during Prohibition. 'History doesn't repeat,' says Dr. Elara Vance, 'but it sure rhymes with closed borders and panic runs.'