Spanish Flu: Why did it go away, and might that apply to COVID-19?

“Never again” is a phrase associated primarily with the WWII genocide of Jews, but it could as easily be applied to the horrific epidemic known as the Spanish Flu of 1918.

The disease wasn’t Spanish at all but a misnomer of the times. It infected millions worldwide, killing possibly hundreds of millions. And millions of Americans were among its victims. It was so severe that it is estimated it may have decreased the US lifespan by ten years.

The disease struck so quickly that its victims often died within hours. Actual numbers of deaths will never be known because of the lack of a means to collect the data. But where did it start? The truth hasn’t been established, but there is some disturbing evidence that it wasn’t in Spain.

Called, inappropriately, the Spanish flu, some theorize that the actual first case of this flu was in a soldier in the US Army at Fort Riley, Kansas. He complained of flu-like symptoms.

Once Private Gitchell complained about his flu or cold-like symptoms, by noon of that day, March 4, 1918, about 100 soldiers in the fort came down with similar symptoms. From that post, soldiers were sent to Europe, possibly taking the virus with them, and…