Brief Look Back at the 1918 Pandemic
This notorious epidemic is thoroughly and cogently discussed elsewhere in this issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases (1). I wish only to add a few points that are not often emphasized, or even mentioned.

The origin of this pandemic has always been disputed and may never be resolved. However, the observations of trained observers at that time are worth noting because they may bear on later genomic analysis of the recently resurrected 1918 virus nucleotide fragments"

The 1976 Swine Flu vaccine Fiasco
"I wish only to note here that my unyielding position on the need for vaccine production and immediate vaccination (not stockpiling) had its basis in what science could be brought to bear in an unprecedented situation. This was the cocirculation in crowded recruit barracks of 2 influenza A viruses of different subtypes: H3N2, the major epidemic virus, and H1(swine) N1. The latter virus, which caused a minor (buried) epidemic and was shown to be serially transmissible in humans, was the putative virus of 1918. Would genetic reassortment of the viruses produce a monster, as is now feared with the current avian virus threat, or did interference by the far more prevalent virus H3N2 suppress further transmission of the swine virus?"

"Thus, the final answer to the 1977 epidemic is not yet known."
Influenza Pandemics of the 20th Century, Edwin D. Kilbourne
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291411/

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