January 26, 2024

1918-1920 “Spanish Flu” Pandemic

The 1918 influenza pandemic, or Spanish Flu as it was known, resulted in the deaths of several million people in the US and Europe, eventually spreading to Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific. There is uncertainty about the actual numbers as no accurate records were kept at that time. In fact, there is a large variance in the estimated number of deaths. For example, in 1919 the number is estimated to be 10 million; by 1950, that number had grown to an incredible 100 million depending on the study. Regardless, it is widely accepted to be one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

By the way, “Spanish” flu was a misnomer. Spain was neutral during WWI. When the flu broke out, Allied and Central Power nations suppressed news of the pandemic to avoid affecting morale and appearing weak to their enemies. However, Spain’s media had no such constraint and reported on it widely. News of the sickness first appeared in Madrid in late May 1918, with increased coverage after the Spanish King Alfonso XIII became ill. Since there was a media blackout with the exception of the Spanish press, it was perhaps understandable to assume Spain was ground zero. Interestingly, the Spanish believed the pandemic spread to Spain from France so they referred to it as the “French Flu.”

Up to that point, seasonal flu disproportionately killed the young and old. This pandemic was different in that it predominantly afflicted young men between the ages of 20 and 40 and in particular military personnel experienced very high death rates in the age group 20-35. In fact, they were suspected to be the cause of spread of the epidemic with the first recorded outbreak at Fort Riley, Kansas in the United States in March, 1918.

In fact, 1918 would go down as an unforgettable year of suffering and death. As noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918: ‘1918 has gone: A year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked the end, at least for a time, of man’s destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all — infectious disease.’

From this quote, we can ascertain that the medical establishment gave no consideration to any cause other than an infectious disease and, in particular, influenza. In addition, the article makes reference to the death of hundreds of thousands and not millions.

So what made the returning soldiers so sick? What made the general population sick? There are many theories as outlined by the authors of “What Really Makes You Ill,” by Dawn Lester and David Parker, including:

  • Multiple vaccines prior to departure for the front
  • Horrific conditions in the trenches of Europe including constant shelling, flooded trenches, unsanitary conditions with dead bodies left exposed
  • Exposure to toxins including chemical warfare such as chlorine and mustard gas causing blindness and respiratory issues
  • Poor nutrition – very little food and no fresh food at all
  • Terrible conditions in the field hospitals
  • Men physically and emotionally devastated

There are several other factors that caused illness including giving the sick very high doses of aspirin which, in fact, turned out to be lethal resulting in respiratory failure and death. It should be noted that Bayer’s patent for aspirin expired in 1917 opening the way for pharmaceutical companies to mass market the drug. Unfortunately, the toxicity of high doses of aspirin was not widely understood at that time and many people died as a result.

In addition, during WWI, governments on both sides of the conflict installed antennas, blanketing much of the earth with powerful radio signals to which humans and animals had not previously been exposed. In the US, a large number of antennas were installed in many military bases affecting all those who lived on base or nearby. A common symptom was bleeding from the nostrils, gums, ears, eyes, skin, stomach, intestines, uterus, kidneys and brain. Many died of hemorrhage in the lungs, drowning in their own blood. Since the influenza pandemic struck in 1918 and affected a worldwide population, it is suspected these powerful radio signals are a causative factor.

Nevertheless, health officials were perplexed as to the cause of the epidemic. A team of physicians from the US Public Health Service (predecessor to the Centers for Disease Control – CDC), tried to infect one hundred healthy volunteers at a naval facility on Gallops Island in Boston Harbor. The lead researcher and author of the subsequent report, Milton J. Rosenau, MD, believed that influenza was caused by a pathogen called Pfeiffer bacillus. The researchers used cadavers from which they extracted throat, nasal mucus and lung material which was transferred to the throats, respiratory tracts and noses of volunteers. ‘We used some billions of these organisms, according to our estimated counts, on each one of the volunteers, but none of them took sick,’ he said. Next, blood was drawn from sick patients and injected it into ten volunteers. ‘None of these took sick in any way.’

Rosenau and his researchers designed the next experiment ‘to imitate the natural way in which influenza spreads, at least the way in which we believe influenza spreads, and I have no doubt it does – by human contact.’ They employed close contact by seating healthy and sick people opposite one another and talking and breathing into each other. They even had the sick patients breath directly into the mouths of the healthy. They repeated this test five times and still no one got sick.

Tests were even conducted on horses (animals get the flu too). Large feed bags were placed over the healthy horses’ mouths filled with the fluid from sick animals and was even placed in their food. The healthy horses did not get sick.

And there were issues prior to the men being deployed. Eleanor McBean in her book “The Poisoned Needle” reported seven times more disease among the vaccinated soldiers than among the unvaccinated civilians. Furthermore, the diseases were those they had been vaccinated against. Many troops never made it to active duty and died in the base hospitals too sick to deploy. There were many cases of infantile paralysis (as poliomyelitis was known at that time) after vaccination. Eleanor McBean subsequently wrote about this phenomenon as she was an eye witness.

The US entered the war in April 1917; the war ended in November 1918. A comparatively short involvement compared to other countries. Pharmaceutical companies were left with many vaccines that could no longer be used by the military. They therefore turned their attention to the civilian population with a mass vaccination campaign in 1918. Total deaths and illnesses rose in the population between 1918 to 1920.

All in all, the so called 1918 4Influenza Pandemic, whatever the cause, was purported to have killed more people than the Great War.

Disclaimer: I am a private citizen who decided to delve deeper into vaccination and health issues after the Covid pandemic came into our lives and changed everything. I have no medical training. My sources for this article are listed below. I encourage everyone to conduct their own research.

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