Was the influenza epidemic a form of biological warfare against the German peopl

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Question:

It is said the 'epidemic' was started on a pig farm on an army base,somewhere in Iowa!. Is it possible it was deliberately created and even purposely infected on a few select American soldiers being sent to Europe just to infect the German Nation since the Germans were already on the verge of winning the first world war,since after they sent Lenin out of exile back to Russia to get the Russians out of the war!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

This is an interesting idea and worthy of further investigation!.After losing Russia as an ally and the resulting flood of German troops moving from the eastern front to the western front,Britian and France were scared and desperate!.It would not have been beyond them to attempt something like this!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No, i believe that it was mostly brought back by soldiers!. One thing you have to remember is that many cases were reported in Germany and Austro-Hungary as well!. so if it was an act of bio-warfare, then it backfired!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Even in your version of history there should be a recognition of the magnitude of that worldwide flu epidemic with a vast death toll!. My answer is NO - that is a paranoid thought not a believable scenario!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

are you kidding me!? The 1918 epidemic spread through America because soldiers brought it BACK from Europe!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If so, it sure did backfire!.

Millions of deaths all over the world!.

Write a book!. Fiction has become best sellers in the last decade!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

LOL
thanks for the laugh!.

One question: American soldiers sent to Europe to infect the German Nation!.!.!. how!? The problem of reaching the other side of the trenches to give a German soldier a good hug and sneeze in his face to get him infected is not to be ignored!.

1- As Americans did not listen to the old timers and did all the errors the French and Brits had done before their losses in the first few months were extremely high!. Those contaminated soldiers would probably never have reached their goal!. But they would have sneezed on their friends and mates!.

2- As the chance to reach the other side alive was extremely low even for a veteran the probabilities of a contaminated soldier reaching that poor German got even lower

3- If he reached the other side against all odds and found the time to sneeze on the German, it meant that the German either was dead and unmoving (try to sneeze on a moving target trying to kill you!) or the German was a prisoner who was going to end up in a prison camp inside allied lines!.

4 - if those soldiers had received the order to surrender, the problem of reaching the other line or surviving the assault of the enemy long enough to surrender (guns, mustard gas, tanks, enemy soldiers) still prevail!.

5 - if you send contaminated soldiers with the idea of killing off the enemy through bug sharing, you know that those soldiers are highly dangerous to your people as well!. Can you give the proofs you found that soldiers were sent on a special ship, and then in quarantined trucks, to the front!?

Houston, we have a problem!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!. You understand that there was an influenza epidemic that killed, by some estimates, 500 million people around the world!. You heard that the Germans sent Lenin back to Russia!. Therefore the ONLY answer is that America is behind a germ warfare plot!.

Oh!!! And OF COURSE there would have to be a massive coverup and a conspiracy theory, which has kept the existence of this diabolical plan a secret for ninety years!. The Wilson administration would not allow military officers serving in Washington DC to wear their uniforms, nor would Wilson send any observers from the military to learn firsthand what was going on in Europe, but SOMEHOW within twelve months of America's involvement in the war SOMEONE in the US government managed to create this virus, decide that the delivery mechanism would be American troops, and successfully infested the Western Front with wandering "typhoid mary" soldiers, who must have spent nights going up and down the enemy trenches to be sure they got the bug!.

Id give you a B for original thinking except that your notions spring from the ideas that America is NOT PERFECT, therefore America CANNOT BE GOOD, and EVERY SINGLE THING done by anyone in authority MUST have sprung from evil motives!.

The 1918 flu was called the Spanish Flu!. What I have read of its origins was that the Army, suddenly at war and finally allowed to begin to prepare, purchased thousands of horses from Spain!. These were sent to the Army's remount center at Fort Riley, Kansas!. They cleaned out the massive barns during this time and ignited a huge manure fire that burned for four days with choking clouds of acrid smoke!. After this fire personnel dispersing throughout the service carried the bug to every army post and to Europe, so that many ships arrived in France with dead men who had appeared healthy when they embarked!. (Cases of overenthusiastic infection in your view Im sure)!.

Ive never heard of your Iowa pig farm, though in the 1980s there was a year when the Public Health officials were concerned that the bug for the upcoming flu season was a strain of "swine flu"!. The vaccine they prepared was a little too strong and killed many old people who went for their annual flu shot!. Its now clear that this MUST be a plot by the Social Security Administration to trim costs by deleting check recipients!.Www@QuestionHome@Com