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/* The Great Influenza, or "Spanish flu" */ improved explanation
In 1918 -- during the final months of World War I -- there was an outbreak of the flu worldwide which killed an estimated 50 million people, far more than died from battles in the war. This particular strain of the flu (a synonym for influenza) was highly fatal, killing perhaps 10% of everyone who caught it which is much higher than most flu casualty rates. Today the flu does take the life of tens of thousands of elderly people each year, but this so-called Spanish flu in 1918 claimed the lives of young and otherwise healthy people, and killed more soldiers than the battles did. Its name is a misnomer: it is unlikely that this flu in 1918 originated in Spain, and it may have begun in China. The French called it the Spanish flu because the King of Spain contracted it, but so did President Woodrow Wilson and millions of others.
The outbreak caused panic massive deaths in many American cities and overwhelmed the resources of hospitals. It is the worst pandemic of a disease in modern history, and perhaps ever. Yet it is often missing from history books and many people today do not know anything about it.
Each year the flu has a different strain and biological composition, and mortality rates in the United States are typically less than 1% and even lower for otherwise healthy people. The But the strain of the flu in 1918 contained the H1 virus plus genetic material from a bird flu virus, which was a deadly combination for which few people had many lacked immunity. It was highly contagious simply by being in proximity with someone who had it.
Parades were common then to support the war effort. In St. Louis, unlike other cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the government wise authorities canceled parades and prohibited large public gatherings where the flu was being transmitted. This saved many lives in St. Louis, while casualties were much higher in other citiessuch as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, particularly after large public eventswhere parades were held and spread the disease.
In Philadelphia, where public parades and gatherings continued despite the flu, 12,000 people died in six weeks and 759 died in single day. Clergy would drive carts down Philadelphia streets to collect dead bodies from the flu and then bury them in mass graves. Nationwide, 675,000 Americans died from this flu.<ref>https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/3978-flu-killed-more-world-war-i-troops-than-any-battle.html</ref> By comparison, fewer than 10% of that total for Americans died from battles in World War I, or about 53,402. The United States had a total of 116,516 fatalities in the war but 63,114 were due to disease, mostly the Spanish flu.
