Post Reply - pandemics & background

   https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2020/04/23/spanish-flu-covid-19-1918-pandemic-first-world-war/ or https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2020/04/23/spanish-flu-covid-19-1918-pandemic-first-world-war/ ;
The influenza pandemic from 1918-1919, commonly known as the ‘Spanish Flu’, was the most severe health disaster in recent history. The chaos and political decisions taken during the First World War only worsened its reach and effects. 

There are hard-won lessons from this period, and similarities with the COVID-19 crisis, that merit reflection on how armed conflicts can influence the ways we talk about and struggle to mitigate the current pandemic.
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The 1918 influenza pandemic took place while the First World War was still raging. There were three successive waves: the first in the spring of 1918, the second – and most lethal, responsible for 90% of deaths – in the autumn of 1918, and a final upsurge from the winter of 1918 to the spring of 1919. By the end of the pandemic, more than half of the world’s population had been infected. Estimations on mortality, challenging to confirm for a lack of data, have continuously been revised upwards.

 Nowadays, historians and epidemiologists use a broad spectrum ranging from 2.5 to 5% of the world’s population, which translates to between 50 and 100 million deaths. The pandemic was, therefore, five to ten times deadlier than the First World War.

DJ, One could even discuss this timing. I go for a wider timing; 1917-1923. Pandemics in general are not over in one year...Spread to Asia did take time...

The First World War did not ‘create’ the influenza pandemic. There is no evidence that the wartime conditions led to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. Moreover, the countries with the highest mortality rates were not those directly affected by the fighting. Switzerland and the United States, for example, paid a considerable toll even though no fighting took place on their territory. 

The Pacific Islands, sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, as well as Central America, were, in fact, the regions most affected by the pandemic, as the underdeveloped health systems there were unable to cope with the sudden influx of patients. Moreover, it appears that in some countries, better economic and social integration were correlated with greater immunization, while mortality was higher in ethnic minorities who had been historically marginalized.

DJ, Censorship, military priorities, concentration of people (soldiers, refugees) often in bad conditions/exhausted DID play a role.

Hospitals were centers of spread for the Spanish Flu. Returning soldiers-on troop ships- did bring back the virus. 