The world was at war the last time a pandemic, like the once caused by the novel coronavirus, swept across the planet. The 1918 Spanish flu killed millions of people and 50,000 Canadians, 5,000 of whom were in Saskatchewan. “It just came on like gangbusters,” said Jeff O’Brien, Saskatoon’s city archivist. “Almost all the fatalities in Saskatchewan and in Saskatoon are in this little window of just a few weeks in the fall of 1918.” According to the Saskatchewan Archives, hospitals were overflowing and many businesses were closed. “For many people, there were dire financial hardships — there was complete ruin,” O’Brien said.