Blame Game - 2

I've caught the "bug" in learning about the mystery of  influenza. Funny how subjects I hated in high school - biology and history - I am now enjoying learning about.   Over the past few days I have watched the Great Courses Lectures #11-13  "The 1918 Flu" - Professor Bruce E. Fleury ;  the Smithsonian America's Hidden Stories - "Pandemic 1918" ;  and the most interesting - a 2014 lecture at the University of Arizona  -  "The Genesis of the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic" ;

Professor Michael Worobey speculates (with very persuasive data) that we can blame the Spanish Flu on a Canadian Horse!   Even more interesting is the history of influenza and what age group may have the best immunity to different strains.

I was most intrigued at Professor Michael Worobey's  answer to the question about this slide stating a "Lab Escape" of H1N1: 

"In 1957 the Spanish Flu went extinct when H2N2 emerged in 1963.  H3N2 kicked out H2N2 but in 1977 there was a kind of mini pandemic and H1N1 re-emerged and bottom line if you look at the molecular clock it [H1N1] was frozen in time not even since 1957 but it was a 1950 N1 strain and it is virtually certain it was an accidental mistake probably from an experimental strain from China or Russia.  And so - yes - the first pathogen in human history was accidentally re-released and not to many people know about it until you guys."

The strange spike in 2017-2018 in deaths from influenza is put in context in this interview with Worobey in Feb. 2018:  

Even Worobey's research on HIV-1 is fascinating discovering strains of this circulating in the 1970's before the outbreak in the US was recognized - see article "Findings of how AIDs spread across North America" 

Bottom-line -  when you were born and what your first battle with influenza was may determine your success in the fight with COVID-19.