THE ANALYSIS: The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 was the most severe pandemic in recent history, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With “genes of avian origin”, the virus infected an estimated 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population and killed around 50 million people.
Mortality from the pandemic was high in children under five and people aged between 20-40 and 65 and older. Efforts to control the spread were limited to isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings.
In 1918, Smallpox, Rabies, Typhoid, Cholera and Plague were the only vaccine-preventable diseases, according to a CDC report (see table 1). Influenza was first established as being caused by a virus in the 1930s and the first flu vaccine was developed in the 1940s in the US.
Dr Peter Hubbins, a medical historian and expert on the history of the Spanish Flu in Australia, said there were several vaccines created in Australia and overseas to protect against the Spanish Flu using bacteria drawn from the lungs of people infected.
“The fundamental problem with all 1918-19 vaccines is that they were developed against bacteria. Therefore the vaccines were technically created against the ‘wrong’ organism and theoretically had no protective value,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.
Dr Hubbins said many victims also suffered from secondary bacterial infections and it was possible bacterial-based vaccines potentially reduced the severity and mortality of the Spanish Flu among those who were vaccinated.
“Vaccines in those days were rather crude and people may have felt unwell after receiving them, but it is completely wrong to suggest that there would have been 50 million deaths worldwide due to their use,” he said.
Variations of the post have been in circulation since at least 2009 and have previously been debunked here and here.
AAP / Balkantimes.press
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