1918 Pandemic Flu

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: How Far Have We Come?
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-1918-influenza-pandemic-how-far-have-we-come/?fbclid=IwAR0rZ6K8U13l8QVrsfzIb5Ke3sUxJI29Mu5konRuCemnBjHf02SwDuevDGs

We now know the cause of flu—but the universal vaccine and the antiviral drugs we need to stop it still elude us

During this flu season, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. It swept the world leaving 100 million dead, making it the most devastating infectious disease outbreak of all time. After a century, how has our knowledge changed, and what is there still to be done in order to conquer the flu?

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the 1918 influenza pandemic was the mystery of what was causing it. The word “influenza” comes from the Italian word meaning “influence,” which attests to the astrological theory of its origin. We once thought the illness was caused by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Other theories included rotting animal carcasses, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and “effluvia” discharged into the air from the bowels of the earth. “We may as well admit it and call it the ‘x’ germ,” wrote a public health official in the midst of the onslaught. People had no idea.   ---CONTINUED---

This is the 100th anniversary of that flu pandemic. I can remember my grandparents talking about it quit often.

My grandfather's mother had died from it. He would tell the story of how sick she was and there was nothing that could be done. He said that he, his brothers and sisters weren't allowed to be in the same room with her.

We can put a man on the moon but can't find a cure for the common cold.

'A frightful plague rampant all over the world': The forgotten horrors of the Spanish influenza
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-frightful-plague-rampant-all-over-the-world-the-forgotten-horrors-of-the-spanish-influenza

The Saskatchewan government began receiving reports of whole homesteads populated only by the frozen corpses of a family wiped out by flu

  One hundred years ago, Canada was being ravaged by the worst single disaster in its history. In the space of a few months, 50,000 Canadians were struck down by Spanish influenza — roughly the same number as the country’s entire First World War military deaths. If such an outbreak were to strike modern Canada in equal proportions, it would kill at least 221,000.

Incredibly, the trauma of the Spanish influenza has been almost completely forgotten. The disaster has few memorials, no dedicated museum and in most Canadian history books it receives only the barest mention.

But the Canadians of 1918 did not experience ...   ---CONTINUED---