Down memory lane: Unprecedented strong public and scientific interest in the “Spanish flu” 1918/1919 during the COVID‐19 pandemic

摘要

Humans tend to place present events in the context of past experiences, especially during crises, when society's vulnerabilities become apparent. In these times, reflection on the learning processes from the past is initiated. All non-pharmaceutical public health countermeasures currently being taken against the COVID-19 outbreak are based on experience gained from past pandemics over the last several centuries,1,2 which were mostly caused by influenza (1889/90, 1918/19, 1957-59, 1968-70, 1977/78, and 2009) and twice by coronaviruses (2003 and 2019/20). Among these pandemics, the 1918/1919 influenza outbreak (Spanish flu) remains the most devastating, as it caused an estimated 20-100 million deaths worldwide and continues to exemplify the worst-case scenario.