There was a time when the words “flu epidemic” put fear into the hearts of every man.

Today we virtually scoff at flu. We even debate the wisdom of flu shots.

How lucky we are.

Back in 1918 there were 675,000 Americans — some 150,000 less than the population of San Joaquin County today — who probably wish they had the luxury of debating the pros and cons of taking flu shots.

That’s the number that died from Spanish Flu during the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources put the global death toll at 50 million or 3 percent of the world’s population at the time.

The particular strain of flu was deadliest among healthy adults between the ages of 20 and 50.

Manteca did not escape the ravages of the flu in 1918.

The entire population was ordered to essentially shelter in place and wear masks in public.

The decree wasn’t made by then California Gov. William Dennison Stephen who then turned around and defied his own order by dining sans mask in some ritzy restaurant with the Golden State robber barons of the era.

Robert Blue — the civilian Surgeon General of the time — recommended social distancing to slow down the flu virus’ spread 22 years before Anthony Fauci, the future Chief Medical Advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022, was even born.

That said, the demand for Manteca to be locked down came from local residents, not government bureaucrats or someone in Sacramento who would one day like the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

When the first case was reported in Manteca, people demanded action.

The City Council on Nov. 1, 1918 passed a law requiring anyone on city streets to wear a mask. Not doing so would result in a $100 fine.

That would be the equivalent of levying a $4,000 fine today.

Things got worse. Soon all public gatherings were prohibited. Schools were closed. Church services were discontinued.

Sound familiar?

Classrooms at the old two-story Yosemite School were turned into hospital wards. Teachers stayed there around the clock to care for the sick.

By the time February 1919 rolled around, no new flu cases were being reported. The final tally showed that almost half of the Manteca population was stricken with the flu. There were only three deaths.

To argue flu shots aren’t effective at keeping the death toll and count of the sick down is absurd.

Flu shots aren’t a guarantee you won’t get the flu.

They are, though, extremely effective at reducing the chances of a severe outcome if one does get the flu such as an excruciating illness requiring hospitalization and including death.

Even if you don’t get a flu shot, you benefit by the fact many others have. That helps reduce the spread of the virus.

The success of flu shots — and vaccines for a wide variety of ailments that once terrified most Americans ranging from whooping cough to polio — has created a “who-needs-it” attitude among many.

Some go as far as saying vaccines lead to an array of very serious bad side effects and can point to instances of such things occurring but they are — in context of overall numbers — extremely rare.

Most, however, that dismiss flu shots simply contend they are ineffective.

That’s true — to a degree.

It can take some flu vaccines a full two weeks before they reach maximum effectiveness after being administered.

And there are those one in a million cases of something backfiring as in the case of polio vaccines.

But based purely on the odds, our chances of avoiding and — if we do get infected — surviving a bout of the flu is enhanced significantly.

Vaccines do keep serious diseases in check.

The latest evidence of that was the resurgence in whopping cough cases when parents decided their kids didn’t need to be immunized. That is what triggered the mandatory vaccine requirements 16 years ago in California for school-aged children.

Then there are those who just can’t be bothered with the inconvenience even if the immunizations are provided for free through insurance or public health clinics

There are countless parents around the globe who would gladly switch places with them. When Rotary International conducted free polio clinics in The Philippines, some people traveled two days with their children to get them the free vaccines.

The reason was simple. They saw firsthand other children who had their legs paralyzed for life after contracting polio.

As much as we moan and groan, we have it pretty good today as Americans in terms of our health care.

It has given us the luxury to worry about extremely rare ways of dying such as by a crazed gunman instead of what was once a high probability of being killed by the spread of a common virus.