[LarryL]

I fail to see how "we" are forgetting. I also fail to see how "something similar could strike again" is news, since it's a recurrent -scary- topic every flu season.

The 1918 flu outbreak is regularly in the news, especially when the flu season is about to start, and there have been some serious worries about a possible similar nasty flu version in the last past years.

Just last week, I read an article in a magazine about it. Among other things, it explained that the origin of the flu was probably not Spain, but they were "scapegoated" because nobody wanted to be held "responsible" for it.

[evgen]

That is not quite accurate. There was a war in progress at the time and news media was heavily censored. Spain was a neutral and did not censor their press. The Spanish press reported the early ravages of the illness while this news was censored in other countries; by the time it could no longer be hidden by the war powers it was already associated with Spain because that is where it was first reported. It was not about scapegoating or blame, just a consequence of how the public learned about the disease.

[bearcobra]

Somewhat off-topic: This reminds me of some compelling argument I've read about how the "Florida Man” meme is the result of Florida’s strong freedom of information laws. It’s interesting how the free flow of information/reporting can easily distort public perception when compared to places with more barriers.

[yk]

> I fail to see how "we" are forgetting.

Anytime a journalist writes "we," you should read that as "we journalists." That has the nice advantage of subverting the rhetorical intent, and keeping the blood pressure low.

[MrTonyD]

I think we do forget it. More specifically, we forget the responses to disease which work, and as a result have dismantled our ability to respond. I read Laurie Garret's book "The Coming Plague" where she described the many things which were done to control the spread of disease. None of those things exist anymore, and would take a lot of time to re-create. No consideration is given to them in a "profit oriented" society, where return on investment is more important than people's lives.

[dkarl]

This is a cliche designed to close the outrage loop in a quick and satisfying way. There's a problem with most people, with a nice progressive solution, which you are already implementing, because you're a better person. End of story. Or, if you actually had forgotten or never knew, tada, the article has rescued you from the potentially embarrassing state of embodying what's wrong with the world.