Press Conference

When the Spanish government first announced its influenza prevention policies, the people of european countries were still laughing at Spain.

By the time the governments of european countries realized that the influenza death figures were wrong, it was already far too late.

From early August 1918 onward, influenza began its second wave of spread across Europe. By late August, it had returned to the United States, sweeping through Boston's dockworkers overnight.

In barely a month, influenza had spread from Europe across the world. Cases appeared in major cities and regions of the Great Powers, marking the true beginning of the second large-scale wave of infection.

The reason the second large-scale wave was distinguished from the first was because the fatality rates of the two waves were vastly different.

Although the initial symptoms were largely the same, the fatality rate of the influenza spreading widely in the second wave was nearly ten times that of the first.

More alarmingly, according to the statistics of European governments, unlike the first wave, which targeted the entire population, the second wave primarily struck young adults between the ages of twenty and thirty-five.

European men in this age range had already suffered enormous casualties in the World War. Now, with the Great Flu hounding them relentlessly, the rapid loss of population filled european countries with terror.

Compared to the first Great Flu wave, the second spread with astonishing speed, and symptoms appeared just as quickly.

From infection to death, patients often lasted less than a day. They could look perfectly fine in the morning, develop symptoms by noon, begin vomiting blood and turning blue in the afternoon, and die of influenza by nightfall.

A huge number of influenza deaths began appearing one after another, and the news finally triggered panic among the European public. When