> not a pandemic like the 1917-18 Spanish Flu... yet.
That was interesting, could happen again, and there's some echos today.
BTW, it is most likely the "Kansas Flu". Dunno how Spain got blamed. Most history suggests the first cases were at an Army base in Kansas, many men/boys from all over, but also a notorious dung-fire.
Because there was a war on, NObody published reports, thinking somehow ignorance was strategy. In the recent virus the guy who raised the alert was punished for blabbing (but also died of it).
This has interesting consequences. If you read Automotive Age for this period, you note a LOT of guys dying, no reason given.
The 1917 flu is "special" that it took-down young people even more than old farts like John and I. (I usually just suffer, but this winter I went to the Doc on Xmas eve to get my lungs looked at.) Yes, young soldiers were being housed close together in bad conditions, but many of the auto industries execs were young, and one on vacation in Florida.
Another thing to worry about: it got to the Arctic and those people were buried in frozen ground. Which for whatever reason, is now thawing. Flu virus can survive decades of cold. It could come out again.