The dominant theory behind “Spanish” flu is it began on a Kansas farm with swine and geese in proximity, then spread to a nearby Army fort, then to Europe on troopships.
Note the words ‘absolutely confirmed’ in my question.... I don’t know if the Kansas farm connection is the ‘dominant theory’ behind the origins of the Spanish flu but there certainly is a school of thought that it also came from China....
On the naming of the "Spanish Flu"...WWI was in full swing with censorship by both sides regarding the devastation wreaked in the trenches and military camps...NOTHING was allowed to be mentioned regarding and epidemic. Spain remained neutral without censorship and thus the first published reports of the influenza epidemic appeared in the Spanish press and voila! Spanish flu.
Among Woodrow Wilson's long list or terrible decisions was one in which he kowtowed to Franco-British demands to ship in more troops while knowing of the fast moving epidemic. Packed into troop ships so crowded that troops slept on the decks, influenza ripped through like a chain saw...poor lads served up as a useless sacrifice in a war in which the US shoulf hsve never been involved.
“The dominant theory behind “Spanish” flu is it began on a Kansas farm with swine and geese in proximity, then spread to a nearby Army fort, then to Europe on troopships.”
My Dad was seriously injured during a WW1, training exercise (broken back and shoulder). He ended up in that Kansas hospital, and his older brother and wife visited him at that hospital.
After their visit,they drove back home. The next day his brother got sick and died that night. Apparently, that was the only time he had ever been sick. His wife had the flu and survived.
Two of my dad’s 20 something sisters had/were moving to California, they were never heard from. The aunt who raised them, felt they got the flu, died and were buried in some type of mass grave.
Meanwhile in the Army Hospital, my Dad caught the flu and he convinced the nurses/orderlies to get his mattress out of the hospital and lay them on ground so he could be in the fresh air and sunlight and avoid the illnesses inside the hospital.
He survived and didn’t know about his older brother dying
and his two missing sisters. He was told when he got back to his aunt’s home.
My Dad, his Aunt and her family never wanted to discuss their personal family losses from that flu. It took decades for a sibling of mine to obtain the realities above.
That is one theory. It was played up in the PBS documentary.
Another theory is that the virus came, like so many others, from China, where people, pigs, and poultry also live in close proximity. Still other theories point to other places. Some scholars are taking the mild impact the virus had on China as evidence that it couldn't have started there. Others say that the flu didn't hit China hard because people already had immunity to similar strains. Still others claim that the virus did hit China hard.
Also a subject of debate: whether the flu really did hit younger and healthier people harder for some biological reasons, or whether it was the overcrowding and unhygienic conditions in the camps and trenches that put so many of the young at risk.