[Ole Okie]

Historical influena pandemics are not media creations.

My great grandmother and two of her girls (my great aunts) died in 1918 of Spanish flu. You're right: that was no media creation.

[blam]

"My great grandmother and two of her girls (my great aunts) died in 1918 of Spanish flu. "

My mother was born in 1917 and my dad in 1918 (bless their souls). They didn't know much about the 1918 flu. They were into the Great Depression when they were old enough to be interested in such things. They were scarred by the Great Depression though.