Chapter 1407 - 4: The European Influenza Pandemic

Chapter 1407: Chapter 4: The European Influenza Pandemic

This also made the Spanish flu in a previous life known as the greatest medical disaster in history. If not handled properly, even developed countries would struggle to cope, such as the United States in a previous life, which saw a reduction of nearly ten years in life expectancy due to this epidemic.

This is not the true terror of the Spanish flu. The deadly aspect of the Spanish flu lies in its lethality among young and middle-aged adults, with half of the fatalities occurring among those aged twenty to forty.

If this epidemic develops as it did in a previous life, then many governments would have headaches, especially in Europe, which had already lost a large number of young men due to war reasons. If they lost a lot of young adults again due to the epidemic, it would undoubtedly be adding insult to injury, especially for countries like France, where population resources are quite valuable.

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East Africa.

In Rhein City’s East African National Epidemic Prevention Office, experts in relevant fields are reporting to Ernst.

"We are calling this flu the European flu because too many countries are involved, and possibly because this virus already appeared at the end of the war, making tracing the origin almost impossible."

"Even if we wanted to find the source of the virus, it’s impossible because during the war, various countries strictly controlled public opinion, and many diseases were concealed by European countries."

"In addition, this is an easy way to offend people. After all, if the virus source is found, it might offend a country, and now the epidemic has broken out and spread worldwide, it’s unrealistic to assign blame."

Ernst nodded and said, "In that case, let’s name this epidemic according to what you said, the European flu!"

Generally speaking, such widespread infectious diseases are named after the location where they originate.

Undoubtedly, in a previous life, Spain was a terribly unlucky scapegoat because it first reported the true situation of the flu and failed to seize control of public opinion and moral high ground, resulting in becoming the scapegoat with the flu bearing the Spanish prefix.

Undoubtedly, this caused irreparable damage to Spain’s international image at that time, with almost the entire world accusing the Spaniards of being the creators of this flu.

This time, however, the Spaniards dodged a bullet, as East Africa became the first country to discover this epidemic and detected the outbreak early on.

And Ernst naturally had to learn from history, preemptively using public opinion and morals to pin the origins of this epidemic to the European continent.

He said to the accompanying officials, "Our public opinion agency must do a good job of raising awareness, not only for domestic citizens about the dangers of this European flu."

"But also for international public opinion. It’s important to make it known that this epidemic originated from Europe; although we don’t know which country it first appeared in, we must avoid Europe and America shifting the blame onto us."

Regarding Ernst’s concerns, it was clear that East African officials had not realized the severity of the issue.

East African Minister of Health, Garlowe, said, "Your Majesty, isn’t this a bit worrying without cause? No matter what, no one could possibly blame us for this epidemic, right?"

Ernst said unceremoniously, "Better safe than sorry. The countries in Europe and America are not nice, let alone Europe being the center of world opinion. They have the ability to turn black into white and white into black."

That being said, Ernst was actually quite clear that it was unlikely for Europe and America to shift the blame onto East Africa; after all, East Africa was not the initial outbreak location of this epidemic. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

In a previous life, Spain took the blame not only for being the first to report but also because when Spain reported, the epidemic was already severe domestically.

Moreover, the time when Spain’s epidemic broke out was too close to the time the Spanish flu broke out in Europe, and since Spain was in Europe itself, it was very suspicious as the original source.

This was not Ernst’s wild guess. After all, no one could completely deny that Spain wasn’t the source of the Spanish flu in a previous life. Apart from the war, the flu might also have resulted from Spain’s poor health conditions, which is a small possibility but cannot be entirely ruled out, leaving Spain speechless.

Ernst said, "In short, we must be vigilant for the possibility of this happening. We must first exclude East Africa, and let the world know in detail and truthfully that this epidemic came from Europe."

After all, the first batch of cases discovered by East African customs was carried by personnel from European ships, so Europe cannot escape suspicion.

It’s not even a suspicion; it can be determined with certainty that the source of this epidemic is Europe, though it cannot be confirmed to a specific country.

Of course, according to Ernst’s personal assessment, there’s an 80% chance that the source of the European flu is France, considering France is the main battlefield on the Western Front, and the harsh conditions of the battlefield are the most conducive breeding ground for epidemics.

However, Ernst’s personal assessment can’t be used as evidence; every country in Europe cannot entirely escape suspicion.

Of course, which specific country it is, Ernst and the East African government do not care, as long as it’s a certain country in Europe.

Following Ernst’s orders, East Africa’s mainstream media, led by Rhine Society (Rhein Empire News Agency), as well as overseas media controlled by East Africa, quickly began promoting the "European flu" worldwide.

They publicly revealed the truth about this European flu, but it did not cause much controversy among world countries, requiring time to ferment.

The reason for this outcome was that apart from France and a few other countries, most did not take this epidemic seriously.

Many people thought East Africa and the French government were just creating a sensation. This so-called "European flu" might just be a simple cold, with the two countries making a big deal out of nothing.

The concept of the "European flu" only spread widely a few months later. By then, the epidemic had become uncontrollable in Europe and other parts of the world, causing significant damage, but it was too late for any country.

And when the epidemic broke out completely, because the "European flu" had already taken root in people’s minds, it also led to mutual blame-shifting and shirking among European countries.

Although the flu’s origin was confirmed to be Europe, the question of which country was the source became a significant concern for European citizens because no country wanted to bear the "infamy."

This resulted in several months later, large and small European country media listing their most disliked countries as suspects, accusing each other of "poisoning," with French media being particularly busy, searching thoroughly for suspects.

The French believed that their arch-enemy Germany and "former ally" the UK were possibilities, not excluding Spain, Belgium, and other neighboring countries.

German media naturally accused France of being the source of the European flu, while British media also listed Germany and France as suspects.

The great powers of Europe accused and suspected each other, while the smaller and weaker European countries showed ugly behavior, with even the newly restored Serbia secretly accusing Bulgaria of being the virus’s source.

The reason for this outcome was that the European flu spread too quickly, possibly reaching most of Europe by the end of 1919.

Of course, Western European countries had the greatest suspicion, including the UK, France, Spain, and Portugal—countries where East Africa first discovered issues with personnel on ships.

That’s why Serbia accusing Bulgaria of being the source of the virus is a laughable perspective. Clearly, the Serbians were completely driven by personal emotions rather than rational thought, with Bulgaria offending Serbia the most.

In fact, looking at the spread characteristics of the epidemic in Europe, it’s impossible that it occurred in the Balkan Peninsula countries of Southeast Europe.