this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Most people have forgotten about Wilson
Kicked off the "Spanish" Flu because he couldn't resist mobilizing millions of Americans for war in Europe.
It makes Trump's roll in COVID/Ukraine seem quaint by comparison.
Did Wilson know about the 1918 Spanish Flu when he declared war on April 6, 1917?
Seems a bit of a stretch to me.
The flu originated at Camp Funston at Fort Riley in Kansas in March 1918, where troops were mobilizing for deployment to Europe.
Rather than quarantine in the face of mass infection, the base continued to circulate new units through while covering up the spike in deaths from the diseases. They kicked off a global super spreader event as a result.
Once infected soldiers reached the cesspit of the European front lines, the disease rampaged all through the continent. But, for national security reasons, nobody would report on the sudden devastating rise in the mortality rate of soldiers. That is, except the Spanish media, which operated from a neutral country.
Because the Spanish press was the only media network reporting the disease, it earned the moniker "Spanish Flu".
But there's no way Wilson was unaware of the huge spike in mortality figures. His War Cabinet coordinated attempts at medical intervention at that same Kansas military base a year later, long after the cat was out of the bag.
He should have known about it a year before they started doing medical intervention? I'm not sure the logic here. The fact that medical interventions at the same place a year later means people should've known when the first cases started being reported?
His administrative staff should have alerted him to it, at a minimum. And his chief officer corpse should have responded to the skyrocketing mortality rate of soldiers who hadn't even reached the front lines yet.
But that would have disrupted the March to War, an unforgivable sin.
The fact that they were actively seeking to inoculate against the spread means they'd already recognized the problem in advance and yet continued to send infected troops to the front line for months.