This show is all about the horrible Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918--a horrible pandemic that probably killed more people than any illness in human history. While the Black Death killed a higher percentage of the population, because there were so many more people alive in the 20th century compared to the 14th century, the Spanish Flu seems to be the #1 killer. First the show follows the history of the disease and then it discusses new research about the illness.
There are two main types of shows in the "Secrets of the Dead" series--those that simply report about some interesting historical deaths and those that actually try to re-examine material to try to come up with some new way of looking at the past. These latter ones are the exciting ones--the shows that catch my interest. Fortunately "Killer Flu" is one that looks anew at the evidence. It challenges the widely accepted view that the disease began in this year AND that it began in an American army training camp. While it cannot show conclusively that this accepted view is wrong, it does show compelling evidence that there was much more to the illness and its beginnings--which actually appeared two years earlier and, possibly, into a camp in northern France...POSSIBLY! Interesting and insightful--and well worth seeing.
There are two main types of shows in the "Secrets of the Dead" series--those that simply report about some interesting historical deaths and those that actually try to re-examine material to try to come up with some new way of looking at the past. These latter ones are the exciting ones--the shows that catch my interest. Fortunately "Killer Flu" is one that looks anew at the evidence. It challenges the widely accepted view that the disease began in this year AND that it began in an American army training camp. While it cannot show conclusively that this accepted view is wrong, it does show compelling evidence that there was much more to the illness and its beginnings--which actually appeared two years earlier and, possibly, into a camp in northern France...POSSIBLY! Interesting and insightful--and well worth seeing.