Jan_Sobieski wrote: “Soldiers receiving the vaccinations became sick with Spanish Flu. Fort Riley was the test group for the experimental vaccinations. Fort Riley is where the Spanish Flu started on March 4”
It has not been conclusively established that the Spanish Flu began at Fort Riley. It could have started in China. It could have been brought to Fort Riley by a soldier.
Second, millions who died from the Spanish Flu never came near Fort Riley or received this vaccination.
Third, there were multiple attempts to attribute the Spanish Flu to a bacteria. All failed miserably.
Seriously, you should read:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest by John Barry.
or
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney.
As I stated earlier, there is no doubt that many who died during this pandemic died from Pneumonia. However, the pneumonia was an opportunistic infection that took advantage of the damage caused by the H1N1 virus.
“As I stated earlier, there is no doubt that many who died during this pandemic died from Pneumonia. However, the pneumonia was an opportunistic infection that took advantage of the damage caused by the H1N1 virus.”
Thank you for injecting some sanity into a thread that had nearly gone completely off the rails.
And the flu recurs around the same time every year. The strains always cycle through and originate in China.
Another book is Gina Kolata’s “Flu”; she notes that the 1918 flu was the most devastating in the middle of escalating outbreaks, with the 1917 being worse than the 1916, the 1920 being less bad than the 1919.
There were some killer flu epidemics in the 19th century as well, the Spanish Lady just eclipsed them all.
I’ve not read the Spinney book but the John Barry book is an excellent read.
There was also a good documentary on PBS – The American Experience - Influenza 1918
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFJPDqKPgc
As I stated earlier, there is no doubt that many who died during this pandemic died from Pneumonia. However, the pneumonia was an opportunistic infection that took advantage of the damage caused by the H1N1 virus.
This is correct. It also needs to be understood that in 1918, while bacteria had been observed under the microscope for many years and were known to cause disease, Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner developed the first vaccines to protect against viral infections even as they did not know that viruses existed because they (viruses) were too small to be seen under the microscopes at the time (scientists did not actually see viruses for the first time until the 1930s. That’s when the electron microscope was invented) but it had been hypothesized that something other than bacteria were at play in some diseases. In 1918, the science of virology was at its earliest stages.
It was only in 1915, that English bacteriologist Frederick Twort discovered bacteriophage, the viruses that attack bacteria. He noticed tiny clear spots within bacterial colonies, and hypothesized that something was killing the bacteria. And only in 1892 – Dimitrii Ivanovsky observed that agent of tobacco mosaic disease passes through porcelain filters that retain bacteria.
FWIW some early cases of "Spanish Flu" were misdignosed as menigitis.