The Spanish Flu Timeline

Historyzine: The History Podcast

In The first episode of those series we did an introduction. In the second we tried to make an emotional connection with the pain and suffering caused by the Spanish Flu. In this episode we seek to construct a timeline so that we have something coherent, on which we can hang all the events, and reactions to the events, that we will look at later in the series.

This is my attempt to do that.

In this third episode I follow the progress of the epidemic as it sweeps across the world, mutating in form and virulence throughout the three waves.

We see the initial wave of infection causing a huge amount of death and chaos in April to June 1918. There is then the second and more deadly wave of the flu pandemic, appearing initially in Brest, Freetown and Boston, in August to December and then the return of the disease in the early part of 1919.

A vicious 3 wave attack on the entirety of humanity.

Red lines, first wave, blue dashed lines, second wave
BMC Infection

References for podcast content:

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919: New Perspectives edited by David Killingray, Howard Phillips

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Influenza Archive Boston

Meg Sorick