The explanation you offer doesn't explain why seasonal flu is so much more seasonal than pandemic flu. Why are sunny days so much more effective at eradicating seasonal flu than they are at eradicating pandemic flu? Recall that the 1918 pandemic started in the summer of 1918. Here's a timeline:
March 11, 1918: An Army private at Fort Riley, Kansas reports to the camp hospital complaining of fever, sore throat, and headache. Before the day is over, over 100 soldiers fall sick.
July 1918: Public health officials in Philadelphia issue a warning about what they call the "Spanish influenza".
Aug. 27, 1918: Sailors stationed aboard the Receiving Ship at Commonwealth Pier in Boston begin reporting to the sick bay with cold symptoms.
Aug. 30, 1918: At least 60 sailors aboard the Receiving Ship fall sick.
September 1918: Dr. Victor Vaughn, acting Surgeon General of the Army, receives urgent orders to proceed to Camp Devens near Boston. Once there, what Vaughn sees stuns him: "I saw hundreds of young stalwart men in uniform coming into the wards of the hospital. Every bed was full, yet others crowded in. The faces wore a bluish cast; a cough brought up the blood-stained sputum. In the morning, the dead bodies are stacked about the morgue like cordwood." That day, 63 men die of influenza.
Sept. 5, 1918: The Massachusetts Department of Health informs local newspapers that they are dealing with an epidemic. A doctor with the Massachusetts State Health Department says, "unless precautions are taken the disease in all probability will spread to the civilian population of the city."
Sept. 24, 1918: Edward Wagner, newly transplanted from Chicago, falls ill with the flu. This flies in the face of San Francisco public health officials who had played down the threat of the flu to the public.
The second wave of the Spanish Flu, in the summer of 1919, was worse than the first wave. <<In Switzerland alone during the month of July, 53,000 people succumbed to the Spanish Flu. In late August, the severity of the infection changed, suddenly transforming into the most dangerous strain (or strains) ever recorded.>>
medicalecology.org
Marc |
