1918 Influenza: The Pandemic That Was Worse Than COVID

History is full of hilariously misattributed names. French fries didn’t come from France (fun fact: it’s actually from Belgium!), English muffins were invented in the US, not in Britain, and Scotch tape is most definitely not a Scotland native. 

But Spain drew the short straw: out of all the things that could’ve been named after your country, they got stuck with the flu. Yep, the “Spanish flu”—or sometimes called the “Spanish lady”— that caused the infamous 1918 influenza pandemic didn’t originate in Spain, but at a military camp in the United States. 

All jokes aside, the flu outbreak in 1918 was one of the worst pandemics yet. It killed more people than both World Wars combined, yet it rarely gets the same spotlight as the Black Death or even COVID-19. 

So, today, we’re giving it overdue attention and examining how a simple flu reshaped history.  

But before we go any further, here’s a quick vocab check so we’re all on the same page: 

Epidemic → A disease that spreads rapidly in one region (local problem).

Pandemic → A disease that doesn’t respect borders and goes global (hello, COVID).

Endemic → A disease that sticks around in a place, with predictable levels of occurrence (chicken pox, malaria).

Origins of the Pandemic (Early 1918)

There were a lot of claims about where exactly this disease originated. Some medical scholars pointed fingers at the pulmonary disease that broke out in China, while others argue it was from a “purulent bronchitis” (an inflammation of the airways/bronchi where the mucus produced in the lungs contains pus) that devastated a British Army stationed in France. 

But the widely supported hypothesis about this pandemic’s origin was at a military base at Camp Funston, Kansas, in March of 1918.[1] Cramped quarters and poor sanitation created the perfect environment for the virus to spread, and within a week, it hospitalized 522 soldiers with severe influenza.[2]

As if that wasn’t enough, the timing was as bad as it gets. With World War I raging, constant troop movements became a catalyst for the spread of the virus.

In less than a month, officials across Europe were already reporting cases. This was how Spain got its bad rep. 

Both the Allies (the UK, US, Soviet Union, and China) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) suffered massive losses from the Spanish flu, but they suppressed reports to prevent the enemy from gaining potentially useful information.

As a neutral power, however, Spain had a free press that openly reported on the mounting death toll. Worldwide media quickly caught up with this news, creating a false impression that Spain was the epicenter of the disease. Thus, the misnomer “Spanish flu” was born.[3]

Well, What Exactly Was the Spanish Flu?

Let’s talk medical terms. 

The H1N1 virus caused the strain of influenza known as the Spanish flu. Initial symptoms included fever, dry cough, sore throat, head and body aches, and loss of appetite. But these quickly escalated to more severe ones, such as pneumonia and skin turning blue from the lack of oxygen (rapid cyanosis).

Unlike typical seasonal flu outbreaks, which tend to hit the very young and very old hardest, this pandemic struck a surprising demographic: healthy young adults in their 20s and 30s.  

Scholars noted that, 

"These infections in humans are accompanied by an aggressive pro-inflammatory response and insufficient control of an anti-inflammatory response."[4]

In short, the ‘Spanish lady’ had severe effects on adults in their prime precisely because their immune systems were strong and capable of mounting a very aggressive defense. But in this case, that strength backfired: their bodies overfought the virus, unleashing massive inflammation (the “cytokine storm”) that damaged their lungs and organs.

Talk about tragic irony.

For the whole story, read the complete article here: 1918 Influenza: The Pandemic That Was Worse Than COVID