The Sandman is a fantasy television series based on the DC Comic “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman. Both tell the story of the god of dreams, Morpheus, and his interactions with humanity and other celestial beings.
Encephalitis lethargica is depicted briefly in “The Sandman” as a result of Morpheus being captured by humans. However, this element is not completely fantasy. In fact, there was an encephalitis lethargica pandemic that lasted from 1916 to 1930. It is estimated to have affected 5 million people and killed around 1.6 million people.
In “The Sandman,” the cause of encephalitis lethargica is attributed to the capture of the god of dreams, and the symptoms are described as people sleeping and never waking up, or begging for sleep that would never come. On the other hand, the truth is slightly more complicated.
The US government’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states that, “Encephalitis lethargica is a rare disease with no known cause, but researchers suspect it may come from a virus”. Additionally Encephalitis International, in a medically reviewed article, gives the symptoms as excessive sleepiness, falling asleep and freezing during routine activities; psychiatric changes, irritability, mood changes and confusion; paralysis of muscles that control, leading to difficulties in focusing; Parkinson disease-like symptoms: tremors, stiffness, slow movements; and flu-like symptoms: fever, headaches and muscle aches. As you can see, the reality is drastically different from the fantasy show.
Even so, it is wrong to expect a fantasy show to be completely accurate. Discussing real pandemics raises awareness among viewers. The most famous pandemics include the bubonic plague, the Spanish Flu, and the pandemic that we all lived through a few years ago: the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look through history, we start to see that pandemics are not exactly rare, once-in-a-lifetime events, nor are they a thing of the past.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the only symptoms shown in the larger able-bodied population were more or less flu-like, and the coronavirus was only really dangerous for the elderly. Given this, I don’t believe that we have experienced the true danger of a pandemic. Encephalitis lethargica was more dangerous in its time because it affected able-bodied children. Why is the fact that adolescents are being affected more significant than the elderly? It is because the elderly are already prone to numerous illnesses due to their weakened immune systems. The effects of certain policies, illnesses, and more on vulnerable people simply don’t matter as much as their effects on the “healthy” people, in a sense. Think about it; a 90-year-old dying would not exactly raise as much shock and horror as a teenager dying (excluding the cause of death). The youth represent vitality and the future in the collective eyes of society, while the elderly represent the past and feebleness. Therefore, it carries more meaning when the youth are affected because the future carries a fear-giving uncertainty that the past simply doesn’t have.
This is why I don’t think the COVID-19 pandemic had as much impact as its predecessors. Now, what does this mean about the portrayal of pandemics in the media? It means that, sadly, pandemics in the media will have to affect the young so that the emotional impact is maximized. If you want to learn more about Encephalitis lethargica, I suggest reading the book “Awakenings” by British neurologist Oliver Sacks.
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