So the elderly from 1918 Spanish Flu are immune to the swine flu virus...?

The pandemic of 1918 came in two waves and lasted from 1918-1920. Over 500million people were infectedand about 50million died. The ironic aspect of the flu was that it caused immune systems to overreact and get pneumonia, which meant that young people between the ages of 18 and 40 were more likely to die from it than were the elderly and infants.

The flu was called the Spanish Flu because 8 million people there reportedly died from it, but also because Spain did not censor its reporting. What's odd and sickening is that the USA and Britain attempted to censor the news in Europe and elsewhere because it was believed to be bad for the morale of its soldiers then fighting in the trenches. Spain was a neutral nation, so it openly reported the pandemic, but in doing so was stigmatize by having it called by the world 'The Spanish Flu.' There is still much mystery about the flu's origin.

One major belief is that it started in China likely as an avian or swine type flu, that it then mutated in the USA into a lethal virus among troops stationed in military bases. Public Health then was very poor, so the military delt with the flu by basically censoring its occurance and shipping out sick people asap rather than quarantining them. This caused sick soldiers in strong numbers to arrive in Europe and spread the flu rapidly among the populations there - and also the military in Europe reacted poorly too, and sent sick soldiers back to the USA instead of effectively quarrantining them...so that when they arrived back in the USA they spread it all over the USA.

It spread all over the world ie. From the equator to the arctic. It was perhaps even worse than the 13th century Black Death pandemic.

1) It greatly increased the world's awareness for Public Health programs ie. Coordination of services,quarrantines, and better communication... 2)It caused a dramatic research into viruses and eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, which came along just in time for WW2. 3)Ironically , it helped create an awareness of Reyes Syndrome/Aspirin poisoning.

One nasty problem was that Bayer's patent ran out on aspirin in 1918, so competing companies jumped on the bandwagon of selling aspirin and marketing it to the flu victims. Unfortunately, they didn't know about Reyes Syndrome and many young people likely died of it because they were overprescribed aspirin. 4)Censorship is not a good idea when it comes to treating Pandemics, and the USA's and Britain's censorship of the disease actually contributed to the spreading of the disease.

5)Public Health in general received a big increase in funding, and hospitals during the pandemic actually made increased profits, so economically they did not suffer from it. Long term I would say it led to the discovery of antibiotics,penicillin and an increase in medical knowledge about how pandemics spread, but even to this day people are not absolutely certain about the Spanish Flu. Most believe it began with birds and then spread to humans, but some say it went from swine to humans and some say from birds to humans and then back to swine... One common complaint is the actual lack of news about the flu.

Part of that is related to censorship, but also because it was eclipsed by the ongoing news of death related to WW1 itself. Shockingly more soldiers died of the flu than in combat. ALSO, there is a theory that the flu stunted the last major German offensive and might have actually been the main cause of Germany's defeat.

It changed many countries due to high death tolls ie. India lost millions and it had an indirect effect on India becoming independent. Also Russia during the Civil War suffered from typhoid that caused over a million deaths...so many long term effects had indirect political consequence we might never know...

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.