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Many of them did not identify it as influenza because,
it didn't fit the definition. Influenza does not kill people
in great numbers; influenza does not particularly effect young adults;
influenza is a pest, it's not a slaughterer of human beings. So they
fumbled around in their diagnoses. A Welch, suggested plague, other
people suggested meningitis. To some of them
went over the top in patriotism and decided
to blame it on the Germans and some sort of poison gas which U-boats had released on the
beaches of the United
States. They came up with a hundred different diagnoses and so often
avoided the obvious one because -- which was influenza --
because influenza does not kill people in large numbers, so this couldn't
be influenza.
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