History UsefulNotes / TheSpanishFlu

As you might imagine, influenza normally poses the greatest risk to children and the elderly. In the case of the Spanish Flu, however, the highest proportion of fatalities were among healthy adults. This is believed to be due to the virus triggering a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm cytokine storm]], essentially the body's immune system GoneHorriblyRight. At the time, most doctors assumed that influenza was caused by bacteria. In fact, influenza is caused by viruses, but they were too small to see with the microscopes that were available in the 1910s. It is now known that the Spanish Flu was caused by the [=H1N1=] virus, which was also responsible for the much smaller "swine flu" pandemic in 2009. While the 2009 strain was far less lethal than the 1918 strain, it nonetheless shared its proclivity for targeting healthy young adults.

* In ''Phoenix and Ashes'' (part of the Literature/ElementalMasters series and set in the early stages of World War I), an evil sorceress conjures a plague that will primarily target the young and healthy and sets it on a ship bound for America to disrupt the war effort.

* TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion makes the Spanish Flu a big part of its Great War historical setting. First, with Charon effectively missing in action, the Deathlord in charge of those who died of violence tries to use his rising numbers to seize power… until the Deathlord in charge of those who died of illness, who is a loyalist, gets a similar boost from the epidemic. Second, the conjunction of the epidemic and the massive deaths at the Somme leads to the [[WorldWreckingWave Fourth Great Maelstrom]], which only makes things even more tumultuous in the Shadowlands.

* One of the mysteries investigated in the ''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Dr. Watson]] At War'' series by Robert Ryan is what really happened to a hospital ferry supposedly sunk by the dastardly Germans. Turns out the ferry was transporting a trainload of Chinese migrant workers infected with the "Blue flu", who were subject to an [[DeadlyEuphemis EXTO]] (Exceptional Termination Order) by the British government [[QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice in an attempt to stop the pandemic from spreading]].

* The pandemic features in the BackStory of the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' franchise. Specifically, Edward Cullen was dying of the Spanish Flu in 1918 when he was made a vampire as an EmergencyTransformation.

Scientists are still not completely sure why the 1918 strain was so deadly, but one thing that certainly didn't help was that many people in leadership positions at the time saw this flu thing as a distraction from the all-important war effort. Infamously, {{UsefulNotes/Philadelphia}} held a massive Liberty Loan Parade, against the warnings of health officials, and ended up being one of the worst-hit cities in the U.S. As the disease spread across the world, leaders did take action sooner or later, often (tragically) later. Actions varied from place to place, but generally involved typical public health measures like instituting quarantines, banning public gatherings, and closing schools, churches, and many businesses. Many people wore face masks, and in some places, they were compulsory.

* ''[[VideoGame/Vampyr2018 Vampyr]]'' is set in London during the flu pandemic. It is especially pertinent because the player character, Jonathan, is a doctor and dealing with the health of various [=NPCs=] forms a large part of the experience.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

* ''WebVideo/HistoryMatters'' did a video on it, featuring the [=H1N1=] virus as a character in its own right, depicted as a pathogen wearing a Spanish hat.

The Spanish Flu was a global pandemic that ravaged the world in the late 1910s, peaking in late 1918 as UsefulNotes/WorldWarI was winding down. The pandemic is conservatively estimated to have killed about 50 million people, more than died in the war, and some estimates go as high as 100 million. Furthermore, it infected some 500 million people, and this at a time when the entire world population was approximately 1.8 billion. To this day, it ranks as the largest and deadliest pandemic in modern human history and the second-deadliest ever recorded, beaten out solely by TheBlackDeath. And even then, it took the Black Death a century to exceed what the Spanish Flu managed in just ''two years.''

As you might imagine, influenza normally poses the greatest risk to children and the elderly. In the case of the Spanish Flu, the highest proportion of fatalities were among healthy adults. This is believed to be due to the virus triggering a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm cytokine storm]], essentially the body's immune system GoneHorriblyRight. At the time, most doctors assumed that influenza was caused by bacteria. In fact, influenza is caused by viruses, but they were too small to see with the microscopes that were available in the 1910s. It is now known that the Spanish Flu was caused by the [=H1N1=] virus, which was also responsible for the much smaller "swine flu" pandemic in 2009. While the 2009 strain was far less lethal than the 1918 strain, it nonetheless shared its proclivity for targeting healthy young adults.

The Spanish Flu was a global pandemic that ravaged the world in the late 1910s, peaking in late 1918 as UsefulNotes/WorldWarI was winding down. The pandemic is conservatively estimated to have killed about 50 million people, more than died in the war, and some estimates go as high as 100 million. Furthermore, it infected some 500 million people at a time when the world population was approximately 1.8 billion. To this day, it ranks as the largest and deadliest pandemic in modern human history and the second deadliest ever recorded (beaten out solely by TheBlackDeath). And even then, it took the Black Plague a century to exceed what the Spanish Flu managed in just ''two years.''

The pandemic almost certainly did not actually originate in Spain. Spain was a neutral country during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, so unlike the contending countries, which censored the spread of the disease in order to not signal weakness to enemy nations and not hinder their own morale, Spaniards simply reported on it more honestly, creating the false impression that it was especially bad there. However, the name stuck. The actual origin of the pandemic is unknown to this day, although the most popular theories claim that it began in the United States, China, or somewhere else in Europe. The first known case was reported in Fort Riley, Kansas on March 4, 1918. Other early reports came from France (Brest), Germany and the United Kingdom.