Just a thought:
Influenza (Italian for influence) was originally thought to be from "bad air"...maybe this is a conflation of ideas. Not by scientists, of course, but possibly, by those who "heard it from" some local "authority" or the other.
As for the museum guide quotes, I find them totally irrelevant to anything.
Two choices:
1.it happened more or less as stated....guide needs more training in not getting enmeshed in disruptive creationist claptrap;
or...
2. it did not happen as stated....we need more practice in early troll alerts.
I wonder about the certainty of the quote: "16.7 -100 million". What seems more likely would be that the 16.7 was 67. Assuming, of course that there was such a statement made at all.
I also wonder about training kids to go to a museum and make fun of the volunteer or low paid guides. What other purpose could there be since they were not going to believe anything they were told?
Isn't this just the same old "kids vs. teacher" story recycled? I think we can just fill in the blank "kids vs. _______" for the next evolution of the story.