There were shutdowns during the 1918/19 Spanish flu epidemic;

''Many of the components of current pandemic influenza plans were utilized to some degree in Minneapolis and St. Paul during 1918–1919. Coordination between different levels and branches of government, improved communications regarding the spread of influenza, hospital surge capacity, mass dispensing of vaccines, guidelines for infection control, containment measures including case isolation and closures of public places, and disease surveillance were all employed with varying degrees of success. We focus on medical resources, community disease containment measures, public response to community containment, infection control and vaccination, and communications.''

COMMUNITY DISEASE CONTAINMENT

As influenza was beginning to take hold in the civilian population, there was disagreement between the Minneapolis and St. Paul health commissioners, Dr. Guilford and Dr. Simon, respectively. Their approaches varied; Dr. Guilford tended to be broadly proactive to prevent cases, whereas Dr. Simon tended toward initiating activities in response to individual cases. Dr. Guilford believed that closing public places was the best course of action and that isolation of individual cases was useless.15 Dr. Simon asserted that isolation of influenza cases would be more effective in preventing the spread of disease.14

The St. Paul Health Department and the Minnesota State Board of Health met Dr. Guilford's strong advocacy with opposition. Dr. Bracken, siding with St. Paul, questioned, “If you begin to close, where are you going to stop? When are you going to reopen, and what do you accomplish by opening”?11

Debate between the two cities on the merits of closing schools caused further strain. Dr. Simon held that St. Paul's school nurses were the best defense against the spread of the disease, and that closing schools would allow cases to go undetected as the children would not be under any medical supervision. Dr. Guilford disagreed, pointing out that 30 school nurses would not be able to adequately care for the 50,000 pupils in the Minneapolis public school system during a pandemic.16 Minneapolis closed the schools on two separate occasions (October 12 to November 17, and December 10 to December 29, 1918).''