The Spanish Influenza By: Justin and Matthew

The causes and affects  The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was an extremely deadly flu pandemic. World War 1 helped the flu spread as quickly and widely as it did, as soldiers immune systems were lowered from malnutrition and poor living conditions. This also helped the disease mutate, and the soldiers moving around the world allowed it to spread very easily. It infected 500 million people across the world and killed about 50 to 100 million of them, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. Because of this, everyone is now given a vaccine to prevent another infection in the future. If this wasn’t done, there is a possibility there would be another outbreak.

How the Economy was affected  Even in areas where death rates were low, so many were incapacitated that a lot of everyday life was impacted. Some communities closed all stores or made customers leave their orders outside. There were reports that the health-care workers could not tend the sick nor the gravediggers bury the dead because they too were sick. Mass graves were dug for the hundreds of deceased.