4 ms·

Hmm, timeline is very US focused, I guess for obvious reasons, but would have loved to seen more about how it moved about the world from its US starting point.

egdod 7y ago
It’s not clear that it did start in the US.
- ngcc_hk 7y ago
  Wiki mentioned this and also doubted it. China is another source.
  - SirLuxuryYacht 7y ago
    But so is Europe or Mexico or anywhere else. Citation that supports implicating China?
mci 7y ago
A while ago, I did a piece of armchair research on Spanish flu in Austria-Hungary [1]. TL;DR: the dates it occurred throughout the empire differ insignificantly. The linked blog post shows also a table with the week of highest mortality in North America, Great Britain, continental Europe, and India, copied from an old book. [1] https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/tracking-spanish-flu/ https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/tracking-spanis...
WesleyLivesay 7y ago
Definitely very US focused. Misses out on some of the areas where the pandemic had the most devastating effects. One interesting story from The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry: "Freetown, Sierra Leone, was a major coaling center on the West African coast, servicing ships traveling from Europe to South Africa and the Orient. On August 15 the HMS Mantua arrived there with two hundred crew suffering from inﬂuenza. Sweating black men loaded tons of coal into her, guided by several crew. When the laborers returned to their homes, they carried more than their wages. Soon inﬂuenza spread through the force of men who coaled the ships. [...] The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them. The death toll on her was thirty-eight. "
- tomarr 7y ago
  "The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them." This doesn't sound right, so I looked into it. It could have been the HMS Chepstow (Chepstow Castle seems to have been cancelled from Wikipedia), but other sources [1] put the fatality number at 68 for that sailing which sounds more realistic. 900 out of 1150 would be above Ebola rates and that would have been very quick for such a mortality rate. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=HMS+Chepstow+Castle&source=bl&ots=09REC1kDYM&sig=ACfU3U2ZJ17nrMpHB6Dh8jFbeabVuxOXNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-xbus067nAhXPTsAKHRXQCdwQ6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=HMS%20Chepstow%20Castle&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg... Edit: Actually your source was correct, you just cut them off early which gave a very misleading impression, it said 38 of them died. Always good to be critical....
  - WesleyLivesay 7y ago
    You are correct, copy paste error. Thank you for the correction. I have also updated my information above.

egdod 7y ago

It’s not clear that it did start in the US.

ngcc_hk 7y ago
Wiki mentioned this and also doubted it. China is another source.
- SirLuxuryYacht 7y ago
  But so is Europe or Mexico or anywhere else. Citation that supports implicating China?

mci 7y ago

A while ago, I did a piece of armchair research on Spanish flu in Austria-Hungary [1]. TL;DR: the dates it occurred throughout the empire differ insignificantly. The linked blog post shows also a table with the week of highest mortality in North America, Great Britain, continental Europe, and India, copied from an old book. [1] https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/tracking-spanish-flu/ https://marcinciura.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/tracking-spanis...

WesleyLivesay 7y ago

Definitely very US focused. Misses out on some of the areas where the pandemic had the most devastating effects. One interesting story from The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry: "Freetown, Sierra Leone, was a major coaling center on the West African coast, servicing ships traveling from Europe to South Africa and the Orient. On August 15 the HMS Mantua arrived there with two hundred crew suffering from inﬂuenza. Sweating black men loaded tons of coal into her, guided by several crew. When the laborers returned to their homes, they carried more than their wages. Soon inﬂuenza spread through the force of men who coaled the ships. [...] The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them. The death toll on her was thirty-eight. "

tomarr 7y ago
"The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them." This doesn't sound right, so I looked into it. It could have been the HMS Chepstow (Chepstow Castle seems to have been cancelled from Wikipedia), but other sources [1] put the fatality number at 68 for that sailing which sounds more realistic. 900 out of 1150 would be above Ebola rates and that would have been very quick for such a mortality rate. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=HMS+Chepstow+Castle&source=bl&ots=09REC1kDYM&sig=ACfU3U2ZJ17nrMpHB6Dh8jFbeabVuxOXNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-xbus067nAhXPTsAKHRXQCdwQ6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=HMS%20Chepstow%20Castle&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg... Edit: Actually your source was correct, you just cut them off early which gave a very misleading impression, it said 38 of them died. Always good to be critical....
- WesleyLivesay 7y ago
  You are correct, copy paste error. Thank you for the correction. I have also updated my information above.