16 ms·

I find it very curious that the Spanish Influenza epidemic is almost completely forgotten; you have to look very hard to find anything that references it, despi

I find it very curious that the Spanish Influenza epidemic is almost completely forgotten; you have to look very hard to find anything that references it, despite it killing far more people than WW1, and being almost within living memory.

deleted 7y ago
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thaumasiotes 7y ago
I am mystified as to why this comment was downvoted.
- arkades 7y ago
  Personally: because I've been hearing it non-stop throughout my life, in very nearly every single thing I've read about flu or pandemics. So I find a comment that says "I don't understand why (this thing I have never stopped hearing about) is never talked about", without any additional context or commentary, very low-value.
  - runninganyways 7y ago
    How much attention do you pay to this type of thing? I've never heard of it until now. It's people like you who just downvote things without an actual good reason that make internet forms like this a shity place to be.
  - thrower123 7y ago
    That's interesting - maybe it's just that US history as commonly taught never reaches the 20th century. In comparison, it seems like you can't touch on medieval history without getting into the Black Death, and medieval-tinged fantasy is rife with fictional analogues.
jeltz 7y ago
We were taught about it in history class and it was mentioned in the news during the avaian influenza scare.
- evgen 7y ago
  And at the recent 100-year anniversary of same, and in just about every article talking about the yearly flu. A quick glance shows me that I have three books about it on my kindle right now; it is ever-present. What you actually don’t hear much about is the 1968 flu pandemic, which was recent-enough to be relevant to any modern discussion of the topic and which killed millions.
  - lazyasciiart 7y ago
    Huh - I’ve heard tons about the 1918 flu but this is the first I ever heard of 1968.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > What you actually don’t hear much about is the 1968 flu pandemic, which was recent-enough to be relevant to any modern discussion of the topic and which killed millions. The other piece I've seen discussing the 1918 flu was pointing out that there's something of a standard for using 100-year averaged mortality from disease, and in 2019 there would suddenly be a gigantic drop in that supposedly smooth statistic. It seemed like it was relevant to modern discussion to me. > A quick glance shows me that I have three books about it on my kindle right now; it is ever-present. You are not a good sample. Discussion of the flu is almost nonexistent, but you are a person who has three books about it. You are not in a position to judge whether other people talk about it.
thepete2 7y ago
From Wikipedia: "To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States" Maybe that's a reason for it
- evgen 7y ago
  The wartime censorship was short-term and its only lasting impact was to give this particular influenza strain its name (Spain was neutral so did not have the same strict censorship, so they actually reported flu deaths and people heard about it first through these reports -- therefore the flu must have come from Spain they thought...)
elfexec 7y ago
> I find it very curious that the Spanish Influenza epidemic is almost completely forgotten; In the US, we are taught about the Spanish Flu in school. The news mentions the Spanish Flu every year during flu season. Every other epidemic movie mentions the Spanish Flu. There are even documentaries about it. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/ Without a doubt WW1 overshadows the Spanish Flu, but that doesn't mean it is anywhere close to being forgotten.

deleted 7y ago

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thaumasiotes 7y ago

I am mystified as to why this comment was downvoted.

arkades 7y ago
Personally: because I've been hearing it non-stop throughout my life, in very nearly every single thing I've read about flu or pandemics. So I find a comment that says "I don't understand why (this thing I have never stopped hearing about) is never talked about", without any additional context or commentary, very low-value.
- runninganyways 7y ago
  How much attention do you pay to this type of thing? I've never heard of it until now. It's people like you who just downvote things without an actual good reason that make internet forms like this a shity place to be.
- thrower123 7y ago
  That's interesting - maybe it's just that US history as commonly taught never reaches the 20th century. In comparison, it seems like you can't touch on medieval history without getting into the Black Death, and medieval-tinged fantasy is rife with fictional analogues.

jeltz 7y ago

We were taught about it in history class and it was mentioned in the news during the avaian influenza scare.

evgen 7y ago
And at the recent 100-year anniversary of same, and in just about every article talking about the yearly flu. A quick glance shows me that I have three books about it on my kindle right now; it is ever-present. What you actually don’t hear much about is the 1968 flu pandemic, which was recent-enough to be relevant to any modern discussion of the topic and which killed millions.
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  Huh - I’ve heard tons about the 1918 flu but this is the first I ever heard of 1968.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > What you actually don’t hear much about is the 1968 flu pandemic, which was recent-enough to be relevant to any modern discussion of the topic and which killed millions. The other piece I've seen discussing the 1918 flu was pointing out that there's something of a standard for using 100-year averaged mortality from disease, and in 2019 there would suddenly be a gigantic drop in that supposedly smooth statistic. It seemed like it was relevant to modern discussion to me. > A quick glance shows me that I have three books about it on my kindle right now; it is ever-present. You are not a good sample. Discussion of the flu is almost nonexistent, but you are a person who has three books about it. You are not in a position to judge whether other people talk about it.

thepete2 7y ago

From Wikipedia: "To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States" Maybe that's a reason for it

evgen 7y ago
The wartime censorship was short-term and its only lasting impact was to give this particular influenza strain its name (Spain was neutral so did not have the same strict censorship, so they actually reported flu deaths and people heard about it first through these reports -- therefore the flu must have come from Spain they thought...)

elfexec 7y ago

> I find it very curious that the Spanish Influenza epidemic is almost completely forgotten; In the US, we are taught about the Spanish Flu in school. The news mentions the Spanish Flu every year during flu season. Every other epidemic movie mentions the Spanish Flu. There are even documentaries about it. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/ Without a doubt WW1 overshadows the Spanish Flu, but that doesn't mean it is anywhere close to being forgotten.