This was why the Spanish Flu of his previous life had been called the greatest medical disaster in history. If mishandled, even developed countries would struggle to cope. Take the United States in his previous life—this epidemic had reduced the average American lifespan at the time by nearly ten years.
Yet that was not the truly terrifying part of the Spanish Flu. What made it deadly was that its victims were primarily young and middle-aged adults. Half of all deaths from the outbreak were concentrated among those between twenty and forty.
If this epidemic developed as it had in his previous life, governments everywhere would have a headache on their hands—especially in Europe. The war had already cost it vast numbers of young adult men. If the epidemic caused further massive losses among the young and middle-aged population, it would be adding frost to snow, especially for nations like France, where human resources were particularly precious.
East Africa.
In Rhine City, at the East African National Epidemic Prevention Office, experts in relevant fields were reporting their work to Ernst.
"We have named this influenza the European Great Flu because it involves too many countries. It may even have emerged near the end of the war, so tracing its origin is practically impossible."
"Even if we wanted to find the source of the virus, we could not. During the war, every country kept public opinion under strict control, and many diseases were concealed by European nations."
"Besides, this is an easy task to offend people over. If we truly found the source of the virus, we would likely offend some country. Now that the epidemic has already broken out and spread across the world, it is unrealistic to pursue whose responsibility it was."
Ernst nodded. "In that case, let us