4 ms·
> The 1918 pandemic, deadly as it was, is still around today in the form of a mutated seasonal flu. Following global exposure and culling of the most vulnerable
by mikorym 7y ago
> The 1918 pandemic, deadly as it was, is still around today in the form of a mutated seasonal flu. Following global exposure and culling of the most vulnerable populations - middle aged adults that were most affected by the negative effects of the war - the lethality of the virus is significantly less.
OK, but was there some kind of seasonal flu before that? That is the real question to me.
- th0ma5 7y agoYes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_influenza https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_influenza
- huffmsa 7y agoYes, but this just became the big dog. Like how there were other hominids before us, but now it's just us.
- mikorym 7y agoCan we infer from this that flu prior to 1918 was less severe on average? Or is the result not that strong?
- huffmsa 7y agoThey likely followed the same pattern. Severe initial outbreak when a new super strain appeared, then a gradual decline in severity as immunity developed and the strain continued to evolve. Rinse and repeat. 1918 was the first time that a flu benefited from modern transportation speed and the massive movement of humanity to and from Europe because of the war. So in the past an equally deadly flu would inadvertently be contained simply because infected carriers couldn't move to new, uninfected areas before they were dead or and beaten the virus.
- qqqqquinnnnn 7y agoso there definitely were other flus, this just happened to be a reassorted strain (evidenced by the swine and avian roots) that caused a greater immune response