# Why was the 1918 flu so deadly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325 "2000-01-16T00:11:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/21 "2000-01-17T23:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Markxxx: > **I had the flu once and it was worse than pneumonia. Just like I hate how the media portrays our old friend the measles as a mild disease. It is NOT. The Brady kids had it. I don’t think if they were sick they would be actin like they were portrayed.** It’s hard for us who went through the measles and the other formerly common childhood diseases to get used to how rare the diseases now are. In the late fifties, there were hundreds of thousands of cases every year in the U.S. Now there are just a few hundred cases per year. Yes, it’s not a nice thing to experience, and there’s the problem of getting other diseases while you have the measles, but we used to think of the measles as being just another stage that most children went through. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/22 "2000-01-18T00:44:00Z")
> [@](#): > > And yet, amazingly, it is often left out of history books and accounts of that period. A question I’ve had when watching shows about this flu is how bad was at the time. Now, with the vaccines and medical technology, dieing from a flu is hard to fathom (at least for us 35-year-olds). 80 years ago, childhood deaths and deaths of healthy adults from diseases were more common. ## In the context of the time, looking only at history and not the medical advances which were to come, would it have stood out as being as bad as it does to us now? People not even mentioning it at the time would seem to indicate that this was somehow a normal occurance. _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/23 "2000-01-18T01:36:00Z")
> [@](#): > > But I believe that most experts believe that the 1918 flu killed more individuals than the plague did… though plague also wiped out quite a few in China, and we don’t really have numbers. Remember that the Russian Revolution was in full swing, & **nobody** was keepimg health records at the time (although Lenin & Co. were keeping _other types_ of lists…). Various British Imperial officials are suspected of falsifying fatality records in their colonies as a way of covering their asses. Finally, remember that WW1 wartime censorship was in place, and that distorted the apparent size & scope of the pandemic. And yes; it could all happen again tomorrow morning. Given the fact that modern air travel would spread the disease even faster, our modern medical resources wouldn’t help much. :eek: * * * “Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/24 "2000-01-18T02:39:00Z")
From the looks of things, to answer the OP: We didn’t have antibiotics to treat pneumonia and other bacterial secondary infections. I think that most flu deaths today are actually from pneumonia. People were moving all over the world as the result of the War, which facilitated the spread. We don’t know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/25 "2000-01-19T01:26:00Z")
That about covers it, yup. Although…the pathologists looking for Spanish 1918 may not be the only people trying to find the virus. Give the large ammount of experience immunologists have in creating influenza vaccines—this would make one hell of a biowarfare agent. And I do mean **Hell**. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/26 "2000-01-19T02:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Give the large ammount of experience immunologists have in creating influenza vaccines—this would make one hell of a biowarfare agent. Umm… wouldn’t the vast experience immunologists have in creating influenza vaccines make an influenza-based bioweapon rather ineffective? “And I do mean **ineffective**!” And I honestly wouldn’t worry about some terrorist organization stumbling upon a strain of the 1918 virus. Scientists were lucky to find that single 80-year old tissue sample with virus still present. Speculation is fun, just make sure you let everyone know that’s what you are doing. * * * We gladly devour those who would subdue us. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/27 "2000-01-19T02:54:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Alphagene: > \*\* Umm… wouldn’t the vast experience immunologists have in creating influenza vaccines make an influenza-based bioweapon rather ineffective? “And I do mean **ineffective**!” > > And I honestly wouldn’t worry about some terrorist organization stumbling upon a strain of the 1918 virus. Scientists were lucky to find that single 80-year old tissue sample with virus still present. > > Speculation is fun, just make sure you let everyone know that’s what you are doing. > \*\* No, Mortimer Snerd. It wouldn’t be ineffective. The spread of this disease was amazingly fast, all on it’s own. If deliberatly spread, it would travel much, much faster. The Soviet Union had (and it’s successor, the CIS may still have) an active biowarfare program. It also has large Arctic territories. And the USSR consistantly refused to cooperate with the world in research into Spanish 1918. FYI, anybody that can bribe a biologist, can get a tiny-but-perfectly-acceptable sample of virus.Perhaps 3 **tons** of smallpox virus is “missing, & unaccounted for” from the Russian arsenal.And yes, I mean **tons**. Biowarfare agents have replaced nuclear weapons as the weapon of mass destruction most likely to be used. In the near future, it is a _not unreasonable speculation_ that bioweapons may become the primary public health threat in the 21st Century. * * * “Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/28 "2000-01-19T05:06:00Z")
Should I type in a larger font? If we have a vast knowledge of effective vaccines against influenza then we could theoretically **vaccinate people against an influenza-based bioweapon**. Which means we don’t get sick, which would kind of defeat the purpose of a bioweapon, _capice_? Your own logic tripped you up, Busty Hog of Tricorder. I hate even arguing this since I don’t even know why you brought up immunologists to begin with. > [@](#): > > In the near future, it is a not unreasonable speculation that bioweapons may become the primary public health threat in the 21st Century. I agree with this statement, but it has little to do with your previous statements. In your 7:16PM post, you guessed that the 1918 influenza viruses could be sought out by terrorists. I still declare that idea to be crap. [quote] Perhaps 3 tons of smallpox virus is "missing, & unaccounted for[/quoute] Perhaps. And smallpox **would** be a dangerous bioweapon threat because **people aren’t vaccinated for it anymore**. If we were vaccinated, it would make a rather lame bioweapon. I’m a molecular virologist, kid. I know my shit. * * * We gladly devour those who would subdue us. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/29 "2020-05-15T16:09:09Z")
**BUMPED** Two decades and in the midst of a new pandemic later, do we have some of the answers to the questions asked? And can they be used to help with the current COVID19 disaster? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325/30 "2020-05-15T16:28:09Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > **BUMPED** > Two decades and in the midst of a new pandemic later, do we have some of the answers to the questions asked? And can they be used to help with the current COVID19 disaster? Better to start a new thread with a link to this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-1918-flu-so-deadly/6325.md?page=1)