THERE is no doubt that the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was used as a primer for Covid-19. Approaching the centenary of the contagion, the US Centers of Disease Control (CDC – cynically dubbed ‘Crime and Death Corporation’) ensured that it was kept at the forefront of public health policy. This warning from history, with the dreadful death toll of twenty, fifty or a hundred million (varying by source) was emphasised in the disease scares of the new millennium.
At the time, those of religious persuasion attributed the Spanish flu to the wrath of God as the most devastating war raged in Europe. In an unusual manifestation, it was fit young men (thus combatants) who were the most likely to succumb.
h/t DS
