FIVE THINGS ABOUT ‘SPANISH FLU.’

As the First World War was winding down, a deadly pandemic erupted in several countries, but under wartime censorship the news was kept secret. Spanish officials made the mistake of cabling London to say “a strange form of disease of epidemic character has appeared in Madrid.” London papers jumped on the story, calling it the Spanish influenza.

1 DON’T BLAME US

As flu casualties skyrocketed in Europe and the U.S., a Spanish medical official protested the Spanish name connection

in an Oct. 1, 1919 letter. The disease in Spain was “sudden in its appearance, brief in its course and subsiding without

leaving a trace.” When it hit other countries, he wrote, “we were surprised to learn” that people were calling it the Spanish flu. “… it is evident this epidemic was not born

in Spain.”

2 IT’S YOUR FAULT!

Spain called it the French flu, claiming French visitors to Madrid had brought it. Germans called it the Russian Pest, the Russians called it the Chinese Flu. The New York Times quoted a U.S. Army official who speculated that germs might have been planted by enemy agents put ashore from German submarines. There were rumours the germ was being

put in Bayer aspirin.

3 FLAMENCO

The disease also became known as The Spanish Lady. A popular poster showed a skeleton-like woman, clad in a veil and a long, dark dress, holding a handkerchief and a Flamenco fan. Medical advertising said the best way to stay safe was to “Above all, avoid colds. Use Vicks VapoRub at the very first sign of a cold.”

4 GROUCHO AND WALT

Spain’s King Alfonso VIII caught the flu, along with several members of his cabinet. Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt got the pneumonia that often followed the flu. Others who caught it included President Woodrow Wilson, author John Steinbeck, comedian Groucho Marx and

Walt Disney.

5 OUTBREAK ORIGINS

The pandemic lasted until the end of 1920. After war censorship was lifted, reports suggested the U.S. outbreak began among Army soldiers training in Kansas, where 46 people had died of resulting pneumonia. In 2014, National Geographic reported new findings by historian Mark Humphries tracing the disease to Chinese labourers transported to France and England during

the First World War.