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It's curious how little cultural impact it has compared to the world wars or Black Plague despite the death-toll. I've never seen a TV series or film about it o

It's curious how little cultural impact it has compared to the world wars or Black Plague despite the death-toll. I've never seen a TV series or film about it or any art, songs or phrases. There is no iconic photograph that comes to mind. It's just a minor footnote to WW1. I don't know if it's wartime censorship or just overshadowed but it's really quite odd.

TuringNYC 7y ago
First thing that comes to mind is the scaled impact as a % of global population. The population was so much smaller during the Black Plague that it was comparably a bigger event.
Koshkin 7y ago
> little cultural impact How many people are dying today from preventable causes? Have you heard songs about them?
- triceratops 7y ago
  The Spanish Flu was, by definition, not curable since so many people died of it. There have been many films, books, and other media about other epidemics. HIV/AIDS, bubonic plague, smallpox, and polio come to mind. I think GP was pointing out how much WW1 overshadowed everything else that was going on at the time. In any other moment in history, the Spanish Flu would have been a significant occurrence.
bsder 7y ago
> It's curious how little cultural impact it has compared to the world wars Erm, it could be argued that the Spanish Flu is what stopped World War I. That's pretty significant.
nwallin 7y ago
It's 100% due to war time censorship. Unusually, it hit young able bodies people the hardest. ie, young men who were being conscripted into the war. There were huge problems with swaths of people in barracks all getting sick and messing with the deployment process. In every country involved in the war. And it absolutely couldn't be let known that anyone was having problems fielding new recruits. So the news was heavily censored. Spain was neutral, and therefore didn't have tons of people packed into barracks waiting to be deployed. As a result, they suffered the least. Relatively few Spaniards got sick. However, since they weren't at war, there was no wartime censorship, and it was covered by the Spanish press. Therefore the pandemic came to be known as the Spanish flu. Extra credits did a series on it, which is worth checking out IMHO. Six episodes, ten minutes each. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BZ3gQleTk-PJqIejFf4Rh2 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BZ3gQleTk-...

TuringNYC 7y ago

First thing that comes to mind is the scaled impact as a % of global population. The population was so much smaller during the Black Plague that it was comparably a bigger event.

Koshkin 7y ago

> little cultural impact How many people are dying today from preventable causes? Have you heard songs about them?

triceratops 7y ago
The Spanish Flu was, by definition, not curable since so many people died of it. There have been many films, books, and other media about other epidemics. HIV/AIDS, bubonic plague, smallpox, and polio come to mind. I think GP was pointing out how much WW1 overshadowed everything else that was going on at the time. In any other moment in history, the Spanish Flu would have been a significant occurrence.

bsder 7y ago

> It's curious how little cultural impact it has compared to the world wars Erm, it could be argued that the Spanish Flu is what stopped World War I. That's pretty significant.

nwallin 7y ago

It's 100% due to war time censorship. Unusually, it hit young able bodies people the hardest. ie, young men who were being conscripted into the war. There were huge problems with swaths of people in barracks all getting sick and messing with the deployment process. In every country involved in the war. And it absolutely couldn't be let known that anyone was having problems fielding new recruits. So the news was heavily censored. Spain was neutral, and therefore didn't have tons of people packed into barracks waiting to be deployed. As a result, they suffered the least. Relatively few Spaniards got sick. However, since they weren't at war, there was no wartime censorship, and it was covered by the Spanish press. Therefore the pandemic came to be known as the Spanish flu. Extra credits did a series on it, which is worth checking out IMHO. Six episodes, ten minutes each. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BZ3gQleTk-PJqIejFf4Rh2 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BZ3gQleTk-...