The Importance of Influenza in the Newspapers

Spain was a neutral country in World War I. It did not have therefore this tacit agreement between its newspaper editors and its government not to report influenza. Certainly there were reports of influenza, but they were generally small and often relegated to the back pages. People had no idea what was killing them, how it started or how to stop it. And with poor news coverage, no cure, and rumors running wild, fears were rampant.