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influenza pandemic of 1918–19, also called Spanish influenza pandemic or Spanish flu, the most severe influenza outbreak of the 20th century and, in terms of total numbers of deaths, among the most devastating pandemics in human history. Influenza is caused by a virus that is transmitted from person to person through airborne respiratory secretions. An outbreak can occur if a new strain of influenza virus emerges against which the population has no immunity. The influenza pandemic of 1918–19 resulted from such an occurrence and affected populations throughout the world. An influenza virus called influenza type A subtype H1N1 is now...

Is it really the worst political environment ever in the history of the United States -- or even the worst "in the modern era" (let's define that as "1900+")? Not even close. On January 2nd, 1920, thousands of Americans -- by some measures ten thousand Americans -- were detained and many arrested in the so-called "Palmer Raids" nationwide. Woodrow Wilson's AG orchestrated those raids against purported communists and anarchists, along with anyone they believed supported either. My writing here on these pages over the last 15 years would have certainly landed me on that list -- and behind bars. This...

This will be short because it really does not need much comment. In fact, this is so absurd that I am just starting with the reference document because I am concerned no one will believe it. Here it is: Spanish Flu Gof 2.12MB ∙ PDF File – Read now Yes, that is right, Fauci and crew are now actively performing gain-of-function (GoF) work and infecting primates with the Spanish Flu. For those of you that are unaware, GoF does not have a single agreed upon definition but, as it relates here, is essentially the modification of the Spanish Flu virus...

With all the controversy about gain-of-function research and all the concerns about how dangerous it is, you might think that scientists have stopped doing that kind of work.Well, no.In the latest news, a team of scientists in Canada and the U.S. report that they have re-created the 1918 influenza virus and used it to infect macaques. Let’s be clear here: the 1918 flu vanished from the Earth, long ago. It’s simply not a threat, or it least it wasn’t, until someone figured out a way to bring it back.

Viruses that cause pandemics often mutate to become less life threatening.The 1918 flu pandemic lasted about 18 months and ended after either people had been exposed to the virus or it became less life threatening.With new variants come new questions about where the pandemic is headed, and whether we will need annual boosters or modified vaccines. Historically, most pandemics last between 2 and a half to 3 and a half years. Over time, pandemic viruses typically mutate and evolve into an endemic disease that circulates at lower, more manageable levels. This was the case with the influenza strain behind the...

In 1918, a novel strand of influenza killed more people than the 14th century’s Black Plague. At least 50 million people died worldwide because of that H1N1 influenza outbreak. The dead were buried in mass graves. In Philadelphia, one of the hardest-hit cities in the country, priests collected bodies with horse-drawn carriages. In the middle of today’s novel coronavirus outbreak, some are turning to the conclusion of past pandemics to discern how and when life might “return to normal.” The Washington Post has received a few dozen questions from readers who want historical context for our current epidemic. But how...

Genome sequencing has given rise to a new generation of genetically engineered bioweapons carrying the potential to change the nature of modern warfare and defense. Introduction Biological weapons are designed to spread disease among people, plants, and animals through the introduction of toxins and microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. The method through which a biological weapon is deployed depends on the agent itself, its preparation, its durability, and the route of infection. Attackers may disperse these agents through aerosols or food and water supplies (1). Although bioweapons have been used in war for many centuries, a recent surge in...

An early preview of the 1921 census papers is set to be released on Wednesday showing how our ancestors lived and worked in the wake of WWI and the Spanish flu pandemic. A sneak peek of the 100-year-old records, which were taken on June 19 1921, will be shown on the family history website Findmypast and hold information about nearly 38 million people who lived in England and Wales. Under the 1920 Census Act, the 1921 census can't be published online until more than a hundred years have passed. The public will able to learn more about how their ancestors...

Until COVID-19 struck, very few had ever spared a thought for the 15,000 Australian victims of the "forgotten flu" that swept the globe during 1918-19

Mask mandates in America didn’t start with the coronavirus pandemic. During the Spanish flu of 1918, government officials ordered similar edicts, their media and nonprofit lackeys shamed the resistant, and health agents in some cases went to fatal extremes to punish the noncompliant, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson reported Monday during his monologue. At the height of the worst pandemic in American history – the Spanish flu of 1918 – cities across the country did something, modern America would find familiar. They issued mandatory mask mandates and punished anyone who didn't comply. "The man or woman or child who will not...

A very interesting documentary, about how Australia dealt with the Spanish flu pandemic.

All throughout the viral craziness of the past year, we have incessantly heard references made to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1919. The implication of many of these comments is usually something to the effect of: “Even during the Spanish Flu, they knew that the places that enforced mask mandates on the healthy did much better than those places where such mandates were not in place.” Would it surprise you to learn that this bit of now conventional wisdom is most likely not true? One city where a mask requirement was enforced most stringently during the Spanish Flu was San...

When the United States entered WWI in April 1917, the fledgling pharmaceutical industry had something they had never had before: a large supply of human test subjects. During the war years of 1918 to 1919, the U.S. Army ballooned to 6 million men, of which 2 million were sent overseas. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research took advantage of this new pool of human guinea pigs to conduct vaccine experiments. In January 1918, vaccines were administered to soldiers at Ft. Riley, Kansas. Shortly afterward, the vaccine was offered by the Division Surgeon to the camp at large. The vaccine used...

Abstract Background. Despite the availability of published data on 4 pandemics that have occurred over the past 120 years, there is little modern information on the causes of death associated with influenza pandemics.Methods. We examined relevant information from the most recent influenza pandemic that occurred during the era prior to the use of antibiotics, the 1918–1919 “Spanish flu”; pandemic. We examined lung tissue sections obtained during 58 autopsies and reviewed pathologic and bacteriologic data from 109 published autopsy series that described 8398 individual autopsy investigations.Results. The postmortem samples we examined from people who died of influenza during 1918–1919 uniformly exhibited...

“We agree completely that bacterial pneumonia played a major role in the mortality of the 1918 pandemic,” says ANTHONY FAUCI, director of National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease in Bethesda, Maryland, and author of another journal article out next month that comes to a similar conclusion.

PITTSBURGH -- Six months after a private staggered into the Fort Riley Army base infirmary in Kansas with a raging fever, chills and a sore throat, this city braced for the impact as the first wave of the 1918 flu pandemic made its way here. It had already traveled from Kansas to Europe as troops shipped off to war and then headed back to the United States, first in Boston, then Philadelphia and finally landing here in Pittsburgh the last week of September. Within days, the newspaper obituary page became obituary pages, and this city would go down in history...

For six weeks during the fall of 1918 and winter of 1919, San Francisco was a masked city. Everyone who lived in or visited town was required to cover his or her mouth and nose in public. Those who did not were reprimanded, fined or arrested. The streets of the city looked like they were full of bank robbers, surgeons, attendees at a Venetian ball or Tokyo dwellers with colds.

The China coronavirus, with 330,000 deaths worldwide, is not even close to the Spanish flu of 1918, which had an estimated 35 million deaths worldwide. This is not because of social distancing – it’s because the coronavirus is not yet as deadly as the seasonal flu! A comparison of data available as of today, shows that the China coronavirus is not as deadly as the Spanish flu of 1918. As a matter of fact, it’s not as deadly as the seasonal flu.In 1918 the world suffered from the Spanish flu. The flu devastated the Western world as was reported by...

The Spanish Flu: The Greatest Pandemic of the 20th Century

In order to analyze the development and mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we naturally look back to the most prominent global pandemic of modern times: the Spanish flu of 1918. The virus wreaked havoc around the world a century ago, leaving tens of millions of dead bodies in its wake, including more than half a million Americans at a time when our population was less than a third of today’s level. While it is reasonable to acknowledge the broad fact that even more lives would have been lost had it not been for social distancing interventions in 1918, as we...