The Spanish Flu B2

Watch the video and answer the questions:

1. What are some theories about the origin of the disease?

It spread from the pultry at the camp , then to the pigs and last to the soldiers.

It started in Austria or China, East Asia or USA and might have been imported to Europe.

2. Why is it called the Spanish flu?

Spain as a neutral party in the war, didn’t have heavily censored newspapers and spread the news
the most. That made it look like the disease was the worst in Spain, which wasn’t true.

3. What are the theories about why the virus was killing the stronger people?

Sometime before the Spanish flu there was a pandemic, the people that survived the it developed a
higher immunity system.

4. Why did smaller rural communities have worse death ratio?

They lived in closer confines.

5. Why did the disease spread so fast and could not be contained?

The soldiers lived in bad conditions very near to each other and traveled far and wide.

6. Why did the people have so much fluid in their lungs?

The body tries to battle the virus and sends messages to the brain to sent cytokine. When there’s too
much of it in the body, it can explode and cause the fluid to fill the lungs

7. What is the goal of studying the virus nowadays?

To create a vaccine

8. What is contact tracing?

Health professionals trace the people that the infected was in contact with and test them to
see if they are infected.

9. Why didn’t the media cover the disease and why weren’t necessary measures taken?
It was censured because it wouldn’t look good for the war effort. There wasn’t a lockdown, because
people had to work at the ammunition factories.

10. What were some unofficial attempts to inform people about the disease?

Some stores had sign hanging ion their doors. Big stores were closed. People in Japan and Australia
wore masks. Boy scouts handed out leaflets to people spitting on the streets.

11. What cure was given to soldiers instead of medicine?

Baths, new beddings, aspirin, rest, whiskey, cough sirup and soup

12. Why was there a shortage of nurses both in the U.S. army and hospitals?

They were sent to care for the soldiers, but there were too many cases of infected people and not
enough nurses to take care of them. They only used the white nurses as the black nurses graduated
from smaller schools.

13. How did the pandemic end?

The cases started dropping and the disease mutated into something less lethal.

B. Discussion

What similarities and differences do you see comparing the Covid-19 and Spanish flu?