Spread of Spanish Flu Was Never Experimentally Confirmed

“Perhaps, if we have learned anything, it is that we are not quite sure what we know about the disease.”

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Young adults were the most vulnerable group to the 1918–1919 Spanish flu, history’s deadliest pandemic that claimed about 50 million lives. Epidemiological observations suggest that the Spanish flu influenza virus is spread through human contact. But human experiments seem to suggest otherwise.

Puzzling Human Studies

The landmark study of Milton J. Rosenau, MD, “Experiments to Determine Mode of Spread of Influenza,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1919.

• They isolated microbial mixtures from the throat and noses of carefully selected influenza cases from an outbreak location. The researchers then administered these to 10 young U.S. navy volunteers without prior exposure to influenza. None fell sick.
• They drew blood from influenza patients and transferred it to the navy volunteers. None fell sick.
• They collected influenza patients’ mucous membranes with swabs and filtered them to exclude larger microbes like bacteria. They then injected the filtrate into the navy volunteers. None fell sick.