Do people know that the 1890 pandemic was likely caused by another coronavirus, OC43 (that was then novel?) Nowadays, no longer novel, it is one of the causes of the common cold. We're obviously not living in the OC43 pandemic since, and we won't live in a COVID pandemic forever.
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Replying to @zeynep
I think evidence for 1889-1890 pandemic being caused by OC43 is pretty dubious. There is good seroarchaeology evidence (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2557748/ …) that there was a flu pandemic (probably H3N8) in 1889-1890. In addition, ... (1/3)
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Replying to @jbloom_lab @zeynep
... after OC43 / 1889-90 idea started to gain popular press, I went back & read some historical accounts of 1889-90 pandemic (eg, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1279164530 … & https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3337889379 …). Drs were already quite familiar with influenza then, and they all thought 1889-90 was flu. (2/3)
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Replying to @jbloom_lab @zeynep
with all due respect back then "flu" was a catch-all for "it's a serious, short-lived respiratory infection". after all, we first thought H. influenzæ was the cause of flu once that was isolated.
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Replying to @wanderer_jasnah @zeynep
Agree to some degree, although symptomology of influenza recognized by 1800s, even though people didn't know molecular cause (some still argued for miasmas over contagion as recently as 1890). But I think serological evidence for a H3 flu pandemic in ~1890 is pretty strong.
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Although I can't independently evaluate their methodology, Taubenberger & Morens seem confident they can identify distinctive symptomatic features of influenza pandemics going back as early as 1510 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180823/ …). But seroarchaeology only convincing to 1890.
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The previous maybe? pandemic influenza is 1857-1858. (Though obviously ~winter epidemics). So about a generation to 1890. I want to summon a dissertation to being here by a medical historian to go through what became "assumed" and what might stand out.pic.twitter.com/JuGOBxIa2l
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