Asiatic Flu 3 Poster Set for Pharmacy Windows

Asiatic Flu 3 Poster Set for Pharmacy Windows

Set of three posters for pharmacy windows titled "Asiatic Flu" printed in 1957. These "ethical displays" were designed and written by Frank Pinchak, a pharmacist from Paterson, New Jersey. Published by his company Professional Advancement Plan, Pinchak sold the posters to pharmacists around the country. He donated the posters to the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy in 2013. The main poster reads: "Asiatic Flu. Jan. 1957 - Northern China. March - Malaya, Singapore. May - Formosa, Japan. June - United States. It is highly probable that a fifth of our nation's population will contract Asiatic Flu during this fall-winter. For the first time in medical history, our country is ahead of a coming flu epidemic. Pharmaceutical manufacturers expect to have 80,000,000 doses of vaccine by February 1958." Side poster #1 reads: "Vaccine manufacture - Asian virus sample arrives from National Institutes of Health. Virus is injected into 11 day old eggs containing living chick embryos. Inoculated eggs are incubated for 48 hours which makes the virus multiply. Virus is "harvested" from eggs, concentrated, killed, and placed in ampules -- safe, potent. Distributed to pharmacies throughout the nation, refrigerated and supplied to your physician." Side poster #2 reads: "Asiatic Flu will not take the toll of the dreaded 1918 flu. We have - scientific knowledge about viruses, effective vaccines, antibiotics against secondary infections, advance warnings from foreign lands!"

The images in this poster set depict problematic, stereotypical, insensitive, and potentially offensive representations of Asian people and Asian cultures. The imagery in this poster set is a product of the time of its creation and does not reflect the current mission or values of AIHP. AIHP recognizes that material like this in the AIHP digital library may be harmful or difficult to view. But, AIHP places a high value on providing access and the proper context for historical materials. AIHP strives to accurately collect, preserve, and present the historical record. Please send questions or comments to aihp@aihp.org.

Poster Copyright undetermined. For more information or for high-quality reproductions, please contact AIHP: aihp@aihp.org.

https://rightsstatements.org/page/UND/1.0/

Image copyright Brian Silverstein, 2008.

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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fpp-07-asiaticflu-4