system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What caused the spanish flu outbreak in 1918 to be one of the deadliest outbreaks ever? What made this version of the flu so deadly vs other flus?
gpt
There were multiple factors at work. Here are two that come to mind.
1) WWI - many thousands of soldiers living in close proximity to each other. Sick soldiers get packed into infirmaries like sardines and the virus is spread by either direct contact or by medical staff.
2) Immune reaction - usually, you would expect to see deaths occurring in populations with a below average immune response (ie, the old and the very young). Not this virus! Healthy people DROWNED in the detritus left by their own immune system. Also the young and old died in the usual numbers.