Spanish Flu didn’t start in Spain

[philip964]

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-fl ... resurgence

War, censorship and the Spanish Flu.

My grandfather got it while in the army in WW1.

Was never the same. Died in his 50’s.

[talltex]

I'm amazed at the number of people that have no idea of what you are talking about when you bring up the Spanish Flu. When all this first started to show up on the east and west coasts, I went to the local pharmacy and told the pharmacist I wanted to get a 90 day supply of all prescriptions. He asked why? Told him there was a good chance they might not be available due to supply chain issues, and he said "oh we get them from so and so, not from overseas." I asked him if he was not aware that most of our medicines are not produced in the US, but in China and India, and especially the generic formulations? He was clueless and asked if I thought this could really get bad? I said I don't know, but think about the Spanish Flu - it could be like that. He had never heard of it and he's about 40 years old. I told him to take a walk around any of the local Cemeteries and see how many markers show they died in 1918 - In many cases several children and parents in the same families. In every graveyard in our very rural area, there are hundreds of them. This is a very smart, intelligent man. He was born and raised here and only one generation removed from myself and had no knowledge of it at all.

[AF-Odin]

talltex,

It is because our schools no longer teach history. They are much more interested in teaching gender studies, ethnic studies, etc. What little history taught in schools is slanted to provide simplistic answers rather than looking at difficult, multi-faceted problems.

[strogg]

I agree. The millennial generation and younger have a much poorer standard of education.

Despite that, I did learn about the Spanish flu and its history during my middle school education in the 90s. I also learned about the true worldwide death tolls in WW2. I also learned other things like diagramming complex sentences. The pledge of allegiance and the preamble to the Constitution are two prime examples of those. I could go on and on... In summary, I am very grateful that my parents spent their hard-earned money to send me to a private school instead of the local public school.

[crazy2medic]

Spanish flu started in kansas!
I taught my son and daughter about the American Revolution and why it was fought! My daughter obviously told her teacher interesting points of the Revolution, this got me invited to her history class on the subject, my talk was over the Boston Tea party and into Lexington and Concord, I got permission from the Teacher and the school Principal to bring a Flintlock Rifle with me! I insisted they provide a me with a Permission/Authorization letter! It was a very interesting to be able to do that but it was around 2005 or so, that would NEVER happen today!

[philip964]

Spanish flu started in kansas!
I taught my son and daughter about the American Revolution and why it was fought! My daughter obviously told her teacher interesting points of the Revolution, this got me invited to her history class on the subject, my talk was over the Boston Tea party and into Lexington and Concord, I got permission from the Teacher and the school Principal to bring a Flintlock Rifle with me! I insisted they provide a me with a Permission/Authorization letter! It was a very interesting to be able to do that but it was around 2005 or so, that would NEVER happen today!

A while back I was in Boston with a history buff. He forced me to go to Lexington and Concord. The trail that the British took from Boston to Lexington and Concord is still there. It has been preserved as a park the path the Redcoats took is there. You can walk the path and pretend your a Redcoat. You can go up into the woods and hide behind a tree and pretend your a colonial militiaman. I would encourage you to do this sometime.

All I have to say is those Redcoats were in a passel of trouble. It was a turkey shoot. Because of the ravine, the trail followed it at the bottom. The militiamen on the high ground could be on both sides and not worry about hitting each other. Trees provided great cover.

It is something you need to see in person. History sort of came alive for me that day.

[ScottDLS]

Spanish flu started in kansas!
I taught my son and daughter about the American Revolution and why it was fought! My daughter obviously told her teacher interesting points of the Revolution, this got me invited to her history class on the subject, my talk was over the Boston Tea party and into Lexington and Concord, I got permission from the Teacher and the school Principal to bring a Flintlock Rifle with me! I insisted they provide a me with a Permission/Authorization letter! It was a very interesting to be able to do that but it was around 2005 or so, that would NEVER happen today!

My understanding is that the Spanish Flu was thought to have originated in China...It was named "Spanish Flu" because the King of Spain at the time was one of the notable figures infected.

From CDC:

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.