History Of The Spanish Flu 1918

[Blumpie]

 

Note that this was released before our current crisis.  Furthermore, not what San Francisco did and how well they fared.  

 

 

[samtam]

Or as Trump likes to call it (38 times and counting): the 1917 'flu.

[cmarshall]

Recent research by Michael Worobey PhD and others indicates that the H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 pandemic started with an epizootic in horses in 1872 (causing half of Boston to burn down), then spread to domestic poultry causing a coincident epizootic in chickens and turkeys ("henfluenza" in the newspapers of the time), thence to wild water birds before passing to humans probably as early as 1916.  His talk here gives a plausible explanation of why that H1N1 virus attacked young adults in their 20's especially hard and spared the over 80's.  Quite a brilliant piece of science.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by cmarshall