Wow. I remember in 1997 speaking with one of my microbiologist professors about the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. I said so many people died d/t bacterial pneumonia. He said, nope, the people died too fast for that to be the explanation.
The demographics of the dead are interesting. We'd expect either viral influenza or bacterial pneumonia to kill the young and old preferentially, but it appears that young adults [age 20-40] died at far greater rates, something like forty times greater, than can be fully explained by the component of military servicemen's being exposed under unfavorable conditions. The elderly could have enjoyed partial resistance due to exposure during some prior flu epidemic, I suppose. But that doesn't explain why children, normally far more vulnerable, faired so much better than young adults.
Jeff
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