[iceskater]

"What really got people's attention is these are healthy young adults landing in the hospital and, in some cases, the ICU," said Dr. John Su, an infectious diseases investigator with the CDC.M

Wasn't this was the hallmark of the pandemic in 1917 (or thereabouts).

[Sherman Logan]

I just finished an excellent book about the 1918/19 epidemic. My hair still hasn’t uncurled.

Interesting factoid: It’s called the “Spanish flu” because Spain was about the only Western country that wasn’t in the war and therefore the only country without military censorship suppressing reporting of the epidemic. So the news media made it sound like a problem mainly in Spain initially. The epidemic appears to have actually started in the US, specifically Kansas.

With modern medicine a lot fewer people would die. But if we ever get a similar epidemic, the medical system will be utterly overwhelmed and the medical care most will get will be little better than flu victims received in 1919.

[MediaMole]

This looks like it is related to people living under stress in close quarters with questionable sanitation practices. Nasty bugs hit places like bootcamps and dorms. Every year, meningitis hits at least a couple college dorms.