# Areas not affected by Spanish flu in 1918 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564 "2020-02-06T20:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/1 "2020-02-06T20:57:09Z")
Did places like the Pitcairn Islands escape this flu? Any other places? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/2 "2020-02-06T21:19:02Z")
Google is your friend! [The places that escaped the Spanish flu](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181023-the-places-that-escaped-the-spanish-flu) The pandemic killed “just” 0.2% Denmark,and 0.3% in Australia. China seems to have been barely affected. There were also isolated communities in the US which were unaffected, possibly unaware. American Samoa had no fatalities while it was 20% in neighbouring Western Samoa > [@](#): > > Just two small chains of remote volcanic islands in Fiji, in the South Pacific – the Lau and Yasawa islands – along with Marajo island on Brazil’s Amazon delta, and a handful of tiny communities in Alaska and the Bering Strait could claim to have been left entirely untouched by the pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/3 "2020-02-06T22:12:24Z")
Australia was very lucky its ports being more than 3-4 days sail (the incubation period of influenza) from anywhere else, so most ships that could have been carrying the flu were spotted before they landed. Also, the nation had federated 18 years previously, and one of the strongest arguments for the colonies coming together was to enforce consistent maritime quarantine. As a result it had invested in a bright shiny new national quarantine network that was just waiting for a pandemic to happen. You can see all this at the gob-smackingly fantastic [North Head Quarantine Station](https://www.qstation.com.au/) in Sydney. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/4 "2020-02-07T00:41:13Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Google is your friend! > > [The places that escaped the Spanish flu](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181023-the-places-that-escaped-the-spanish-flu) > > The pandemic killed “just” 0.2% Denmark,and 0.3% in Australia. China seems to have been barely affected. There were also isolated communities in the US which were unaffected, possibly unaware. American Samoa had no fatalities while it was 20% in neighbouring Western Samoa The link describes a place in Colorado, Gunnison, which shut off access to the world and escaped the flu. It helps to be small and remote - and self sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/5 "2020-02-07T12:23:26Z")
There’s a good article (text or audio) all about the spread of it [here at Hakai magazine](https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/from-berth-to-death/). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/areas-not-affected-by-spanish-flu-in-1918/847564/6 "2020-02-08T22:32:21Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Australia was very lucky its ports being more than 3-4 days sail (the incubation period of influenza) from anywhere else, so most ships that could have been carrying the flu were spotted before they landed. > > . Not only that: people reacted with all the maturity and informed common sense that you see on display now in relation to NC19 🙂 Returning soldiers nearly rioted when, after being on board and in quarantine for the last month, they were held off shore and in quarantine for another week…