[SunkenCiv]

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Police officers in Seattle wear masks to protect them from the flu in December 1918. The pandemic killed millions. Photo From the National Archives at College Park, Md.

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[SunkenCiv]

Scientists: 1918 Killer Spanish Flu Was a Bird Flu
Fox News | October 05, 2005 | Daniel J. DeNoon
Posted on 10/05/2005 2:20:11 PM EDT by stm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497138/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Ordinarily modern history topics don't get a ping, but this is flu season.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[Shimmer128]

I had to go to the dr today (sick) and just got my first flu shot ever. Hope it works.

[wideawake]

In NYC there were stacked pine boxes on streetcorners as funeral homes struggled to collect and embalm the dead.

In Queens where I grew up, there are whole sections of cemeteries with grave after grave of young people who died suddenly in 1917/1918.

[Coleus]

years ago my grandma relayed a story to her children that she remembered the coffins stacked up on the streets of our city. I'm not too sure whether the flu killed them or secondary bacterial infections that took advantage of the opportunity of a compromised immune system. If that's the case, then antibiotics can be used to kill off the bacterial infections while the flu takes its course.

[Sam's Army]

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I haven't heard much about Bird Flu lately...

[wolfcreek]

How did this flu manage to spread across the world? Was it at least partially due to veterans returning from the war.

[Brofholdonow]

Somehow, some way, Bush's fault!

[Ciexyz]

My grandparents' generation. They told stories of homes being quarantined with quarantine signs, in their neighborhood.

[TX Bluebonnet]

My grandfather was in the Army in Newport News, preparing to ship out for WWI when he got the Spanish flu. The war was over by the time he got over it. Didn't I read where that was one of the reasons the war ended? So many soldiers were getting sick and also spreading the disease.