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1. What's the etymology of the word influenza?
People thought it was 'influenced' by a bad confluence of astrological signs.
2. The 1918 influenza pandemic was often referred to as "the Spanish flu". Why Spanish?
Named after the King of Spain, the most famous of its sick.
When I was a kid my father was stationed at Ft. Reilly, Kansas, where the major outbreak started. Our teachers in school they acted as if they were almost proud of the fact when they taught us about it, and I can still remember sitting at the dinner table asking my parents 'why' people would be so proud of something like that!
Stitchawl
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