Why did the flu from 1918 finally disappear? nt

[LAS14]

[marybourg]

1. Herd immunity. Mutation. It's the H1N1 strain. Still around.

[snowybirdie]

2. I read somewhere

That herd immunity took over. Because so many people had already had it or died.

[Initech]

3. It didn't disappear.

It just mutated into a way less deadly and more easily manageable strain that could be taken care of with a shot or pills. That could easily happen with COVID, or COVID could disappear and come back as something else. The thing is there are way too many unknowns with this one.

[empedocles]

5. Thank you

[still_one]

4. Herd immunity, but the cost was many lives

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. It didn't. It came back as swine flu in 2009.

But viruses always mutate.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Same reason every other flu "disappears."

It's the nature of the influenza virus that it is seasonal, and different strains predominate nearly every year.

But since I suspect you are suggesting that COVID 19 might dissapear the same way - remember you are dealing with a different virus. It does not follow the influenza playbook.

[COL Mustard]

8. The 1918 Flu Didn't Disappear

It mutated and humans gained immunity. Most of the seasonal flus today are descended from it. COVID may work the same.

There's only one virus I want to really eradicate, and we can provide the cure on November 3.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Not enough people were infected to develop herd immunity.

It takes around 90% of the population, and only about 30% were infected by the 1918 influenza. You are correct that it mutated - that is why I put "disappears" in quotes, and you are correct that many of the seasonal influenza strains today descended from it.. COVID 19 is a coronavirus. They are significantly different from the influenza virus when it comes to mutating, and cannot be expected to work the same way.

[dsc]

9. the main way it killed people is treatable now

so people who get the viruses that descended from it don't die now like they died then.