Spanish Flu. Any historians amongst you?

I heard that a virus can mutate to become stronger but it usually mutates down and becomes less virulent.

I hope if this is true it soon mutates to be less lethal

Thank you all for your answers and knowledge. I shall try and catch up with the radio programme. I guess in a hundred years time people will be asking about this virus. I wonder what they will say about it.

Sorry, that should have been my mother’s aunt, not cousin. I’m getting the generations mixed up.

The exact origins of Spanish Influenza have not been pinpointed exactly, but more recent research and old evidence indicates that it may well have originated in China, in Shanxi Province in 1917. It was called 'The Winter Sickness' there.

Thousands of Chinese labourers (the Chinese Labour Force) were brought from there to Canada, England and then France to work in 1917 and many became ill, quarantined and were not well cared for.

It was an avian flu of type H1N1.

My mother’s cousin is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave because she died of Spanish Flu while hospital-nursing sick soldiers who had returned from WW1.

Pandemic 1918 is on Radio4 at the moment. Parts one and two can be found on Sounds catch up, part three due this coming Friday.
Interesting to learn how it compares to the current situation.
My great aunt emigrated to Canada in 1915 and died there in November 1918 during the first wave,. She was 23.

It didn’t just kill old folks. My grandmother lost her sister, her mother and her 7-month old baby all within a week. They lived in Scotland.

Here’s an article about how Philadelphia got it wrong in 1918 & comparing it with St Louis where the death toll was only 700, compared with the many thousands who lost their lives in Philadelphia after the city decided a big parade could still go ahead
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/15/us/philadelphia-1918-spanish-flu-trnd/index.html

I read that the 1918 flu pandemic was one that took out healthy people first, because it was too strong and killed it's hosts.
It carried on for 2 years before dying out itself.
It did also kill off people worn out from the Great War.
There was a comparison of two American cities, one I think it was Seattle had a lockdown in place quite soon and the other one I think it was Philidelphia did not lockdown and had a much higher number of death.

Of course it should not be termed the Spanish Flu, it began in America and was brought to Europe by Troops going to fight in the Great War.

My grandmother died of the 'flu epidemic/pandemic in the 1960s- she was only ill for a few days - she was 64.

Were more of the economy

2 books: “Pandemic 1918” by Catherine Arnold and “The Pandemic Century” by Dr. Mark Honigsbaum are interesting.
Britain’s Senior Medical officer kept it quiet and encouraged people to go back to work. Keep calm he said as his thoughts weremoreoftheeconomy than public health.

There have been two programmes about the Spanish Flu on American channels (Smithsonian I think). One was beautifully made and featured old folk who were there and remembered it! The programme must have been made about 20 years ago or more. The 'flu disappeared very suddenly and maybe herd immunity had something to do with it. It swept through the community at a rate of knots, so within a short space of time everyone had either died or survived I suppose. People could be dead within 24 hours of first showing symptoms. Very different from coronavirus.

I don't know too much about the Spanish Flu Epidemic but I was watching a program about the crippling Fog of 1952 and the deaths caused and the lack of medical help available under the then PM Sir Winston Churchill.

There's an excellent documentary on IPlayer (BBC) called "The flu that killed 50 million", I think it's still available.

The other theory about some viruses is that they become too effective and kill their victims so quickly that they don't have time to infect anyone else and the epidemic stops.

From what I’ve read of that pandemic, it had three or possibly four waves, the deadliest being the second, as it had mutated. They think the reason that the seemingly fit and healthy age group was most affected is because children were generally less prone to catching it and older people had a degree of immunity conferred by the Russian Flu of the 1880’s.

This is an interesting website about the Spanish flu. www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

I'm not a historian but have always thought that the 1918 flu epidemic spread so quickly and so far because of the general weakness in health of the world population after WW1.
Your point about the virus reaching it's ability to mutate - I think I read that somewhere too. I hope and pray that it's correct.
There is a prediction now that the current virus will return but in decreasing peaks. Sorry can't give a link - one of the many online sources.