spanish flu

I'd always heard about the Spanish Flu of 1918 — how it claimed almost as many as the war, and how its losses got lumped in with the war's losses.

But I'd never heard till today *why* they called it "Spanish."

...because it came from Spain? from Spanish animals? a Spanish man was patient zero? Nope.

It was military censorship. The thing hit hard everywhere. But papers in England and France and Germany and the US didn't report it, because military brass thought it would affect morale.

Spain was neutral. So their papers reported it. So we thought Spain was worse hit. *That's* why we called it that.

Aren't you glad things have changed a century later?