Influenza Diagnosis of Garfield Lucas Webster

## Political Crisis

Garfield Lucas Webster, 3rd Prime Minister of the Empire of Chawosauria from January 1, 1910, to December 31, 1919

### Location

* Chawopolis Palace, Chawopolis City, Socialist Republic of North America, Empire of Chawosauria
* Nuuk, Greenland, Denmark (quarantine)

### Duration

July 8, 1919 - March 4, 1920 (illness-span)

### Participants

* Garfield Lucas Webster (flu victim)
* 3rd Chawopolis Palace
* Emperor Santiago

### Outcome

* The end of Webster's Premiership
* Beginning of Theodore McClellan's premiership

### Result

No infections or deaths

The **Influenza Diagnosis of Garfield Lucas Webster** was a crisis for the Chawosaurian government. Webster being an active flu patient threatened the possibility of a flu cluster in the Chawopolis Palace that threatened members of the 3rd Chawopolis Palace, and Emperor Santiago and his family. This flu case suffered by Webster is known to have effectively ended Webster's entire prime ministership.

Prime Minister Garfield Lucas Webster recently recovered from his severe mental breakdown in early 1919, and the Webster administration planned to address the ongoing 1918 flu pandemic that is ravaging the world, infecting 500+ million people by the end of the pandemic in 1920. Webster visited many hospital wards of Chawosaurians who were infected by the flu pandemic, without a mask, communicating with the flu patients, and following his return to Chawopolis, it was clear that Webster has gotten the flu himself, by the spring of 1919. Webster was officially diagnosed with influenza on June 4, 1919, and the news caused widespread shock among the Chawosaurian public.

Webster was ordered by Emperor Santiago to quarantine to Nuuk, Greenland, until he recovers, but doctors informed the emperor of his severe symptoms, they advised the emperor to not consider a second term for Garfield Webster. The emperor instead offers the prime ministership over to Theodore McClellan. Webster leaves office on December 31, 1919, and then turns his focus on recovering from the flu.

Usually, it takes a week to struggle with the flu, but Webster had the flu for months, showing how severe his flu illness was, it was feared while Webster was still Prime Minister that because Webster had such a severe case of the flu, he could die in office and that would create a succession crisis because there was no order of succession for the Prime Ministership. A deeply feared worse-case scenario was a war of succession seen just recently in the Wolfsberg Empire, leading to the rule of Wilhelmus Adrian Van Belleghem.

After Webster retired from the prime ministership on time on December 31, 1919, thus demolishing fears of a succession showdown, Webster's health improved, and by March 1920, he miraculously recovered from the flu. The Spanish flu pandemic ended by May of 1920.

## Background

> *(see: Spanish Flu in Chawosauria)*
>
>

Garfield Lucas Webster struggled with influenza several times during his childhood, but despite his already bad health, his flus were always so mild that he improved from them less than a week. Webster narrowly escaped the Russian flu pandemic, making Webster the ultimate survivor of influenza, and he proved it again in his even worse flu diagnosis.

Garfield Webster was Prime Minister of the world of Chawosauria since January 1, 1910, and until 1914, he became a very influential than expected Prime Minister, enacting progressive policies on labor, environmental, and economic issues, despite enacting deeply socially conservative policies regarding race, the role of women, and religion in politics. Webster's golden age as Prime Minister crumbled when World War I began, and the war didn't Webster so popular as his progressive agenda did, he becomes an unpopular leader at a time he needed the public on his side to lead Chawosauria through this geopolitical disaster of a war.

Webster becomes straight-up mentally ill because of the stress and pressure caused by the ongoing but ending World War I, the subsequent fallout of the Russian Revolution, and now a deadly flu epidemic, all happening at once in one year. After a period of serious but deadly mental illness which causes great widespread concern, Webster did recover after the geopolitical environment stabilizes following the end of WWI.

The Webster administration attempts to turn their focus on controlling the 1918 flu pandemic that was ravaging the Chawosaurian world, Prime Minister Webster, now in a stabilized mental state, decides to start his plan to control the flu epidemic by visiting hospitals and hospital wards of Chawosaurians who have contracted the flu, but Webster too was unaware of how severe the flu was in 1919, he entered a hospital completely maskless and gloveless, and began interacting with flu patients, many of whom were severely contiguous, Webster was shaking their hands and directly speaking to them. Webster left the hospital and returned to the Chawopolis Palace, and in days following his hospital visit, he felt flu-like symptoms including a cough, a headache, joint pains, and a fever.

Webster, his administration, and many doctors who examined him, all realized that Webster contracted the flu, and it was because of his visit to a hospital completely unarmed with anti-virus protective gear (a mask, gloves, etc). Webster has caught the flu, and it would be a severe case for Webster, unlike his previous flu diagnoses.

## Webster's Flu Condition

June 4, 1919, Webster was diagnosed with influenza, yet again because this is not the first time he's had the flu. But this flu condition would prove to be the worst flu Webster had ever suffered. The entire Webster administration were ordered to quarantine by the doctors who examined Webster, and luckily, none of Webster's ministers were infected.

Webster's symptoms were a headache, joint pains, a cough, and a high fever. It was projected would have the flu for a week as normal flu cases, but Webster would have the flu longer than a week, or even a month, showing how intense Webster's flu condition was. Webster's physical health had been declining in recent days, but not enough to cause problems for Webster.

Webster was ordered into quarantine to the city of Nuuk in Greenland because the other candidates: cities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, were all rejected because of flu cases.

## Fears of Webster's Potential Death and Succession Crisis

With Webster's influenza shown to be pretty bad than anticipated, widespread fears that Webster could actually die pretty soon made the entire Chawosaurian government realize that there is no order of succession for the Prime Ministership of the Empire of Chawosauria. Government officials begged doctors and physicians to treat Webster immediately, but they said Webster's condition was too severe but unexplainably not fatal, giving government officials slight relief but still uncertain fears.

Candidates to replace Webster in case he dies were Theodore McClellan, Joseph Wallace Berks, Jonathan Sidney MacCarthy, and others. As Webster's condition gets worse, immediate panic sparks and desperate calls to pass a law establishing an order of succession becomes heated, but the 3rd Chawopolis Palace said there was no need for an order of succession. Webster's condition continues to get worse by the hour of a day.

It was even feared that a war of succession could take place if a succession crisis intensifies. That was what happened in the Wolfsberg Empire when Chancellor Jonathan Sarban Boleslaus III died in 1893, and a big war of succession erupted and was won by Wilhelmus Van Belleghem, resulting in his 65-year dictatorship.

## The End of Webster's Premiership

Emperor Santiago was finally called on by doctors, physicians, and politicians fearful of the potential death of Garfield Webster to the flu, to immediately begin nomination and confirmation proceedings of the succeeding Prime Minister to take over on January 1, 1920. Webster opposed this idea and pleaded he'd get well soon, but it doesn't seem likely.

Theodore McClellan, the President of the Socialist Republic of North America, was nominated by Emperor Santiago to succeed the badly sick Garfield Webster and was asked by politicians, physicians, and scholars, to immediately say in public that he accepts the nomination and will run for the Prime Ministership in the confirmation process in the Chawopolis Palace.

Theodore McClellan made news by standing to a socially-distanced press conference in New York City and announced he does accept the emperor's prime ministerial nomination to replace Webster in 1920, which infuriated Webster because it does mean his tenure is effectively over. Webster was about to call McClellan to tell him not to accept the emperor's nomination, but McClellan accepted it before that phone conversation would take place.

During the confirmation process, Webster ran a "bunker campaign" to indirectly influence the delegates to vote for him instead of McClellan, but an anti-Websterian protest outside the Chawopolis Palace that turned violent undercut Webster's efforts, Webster was eliminated in the first of all three ballots. McClellan was unanimously elected Prime Minister. Theodore McClellan took office as Prime Minister on January 1, 1920.

The delegates who voted for McClellan cited Webster's flu illness as a factor to their rejection of a Webster second term.

## Webster's Miraculous Recovery

After Webster reluctantly left office, he was devastated but luck rained on him as his symptoms started to weaken due to the medicine given to him by Chawosaurian shamans, Webster requested witch doctors to cure him because he didn't believe the doctors who were trying to him were doing enough, Webster as a Catholic was an avid opponent to witchcraft and magic, yet he demanded to be treated by white magic. The treatment works and by March 1920, Webster was asymptomatic from the flu. Webster's flu returned a week later and he was vaccinated before his flu symptoms would get worse again, treating him completely from influenza.

## Analysis and Legacy

No doubt at all that Webster's flu diagnosis was the one and only cause of death of his entire prime ministership, Webster was universally blamed for the fall of his prime ministership by not taking safety precautions seriously when visiting hospitalized flu victims, and the obstacles that his already poor health had established for any chances of recovery from influenza. In 1943, Webster rebuffed that blame game coming from critics.

There were theories that Webster would have handled the 1918 flu pandemic so well that he'd regained his popularity that World War I destroyed, and he'd be vital enough to cruise to a second term as Prime Minister. While there is evidence of this theory, it is universally theorized that had Webster not got infected, he may narrowly sneak into term II as Prime Minister, and the economic uptick in many nations following World War I would actually help Webster's popularity, and the end of the Russian Civil War in Bolshevik hands would garner sympathy for Webster, and bolster Websterian candidates of any party in the 1925 Chawosaurian legislative elections. Webster would take a New Deal approach to the Great Depression in a scenario third term in the 1930s, and Webster may would have used the mistakes and lessons he learned from the previous World War to handle the Second World War, which would may give him better or steadier popularity than he had during World War I. The pressure of World War II and the onset of the Cold War would probably kill Webster in a similar fashion how the pressure of World War II killed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

## See also

* 1918 Mental Decline of Garfield Lucas Webster
* Assassination Attempts on Garfield Lucas Webster