The Man Who Predicted Pandemic Inequality a Century Ago

Edgar Sydenstricker dug into the pandemic of 1918 and found income level was a key factor in who lived and who died

The St Louis Red Cross Motor Corps on duty during the Influenza epidemic, 1918. Photo: Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Edgar Sydenstricker, the preeminent epidemiologist of his generation, showed how the 1918 flu pandemic was hardest on the poor, as were so many of the health conditions he…