Tuesday, June 20, 2017

"There are many myths about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Some of them are pretty funny."

SBM:
The very name Spanish flu is based on a myth. The first cases may have come from France, Belgium, Kansas, or China; experts disagree. But they all agree it did NOT originate in Spain. Spain got the blame because it was a neutral country in WWI and had no wartime press censorship. The countries involved in the war censored news about flu cases in their own countries. When Spain reported its cases, that news was reprinted and everyone got the idea that that’s where the epidemic started.