Before missionaries arrived, Sāmoans had prayers: ‘This light is for you, O king and gods superior and inferior! If any of you are forgotten do not be angry, this light is for you all. Be propitious to this family; give life to all; and may your presence be prosperity. Let our children be blessed and multiplied. Remove far from us fines and sicknesses. Regard our poverty; and send us food to eat, and cloth to keep us warm. Drive away from us sailing gods, lest they come and cause disease and death. Protect this family by your presence, and may health and long life be given to us all.’
The geographical origins of ‘Spanish influenza’ remain murky. The only certainty is that it did not come from Spain. That it was a virus , now known as A/H1N1, that had come into humans through birds and pigs. It arrived in a ‘first wave’ or the ‘spring wave’ in March 1918 in the United States. Slightly later, but virtually simultaneously, influenza appeared in North America, European and Asia. This makes a definitive assignment of a geographical point of origin impossible.’ A study says the first wave of the epidemic in the spring of 1918 was a seasonal and benign influenza epidemic, similar to those which occur almost every year. If there had only been this one epidemic wave, it would not have been of much historical interest and would not have motivated so much investigation: ‘The main conclusion of the present research into the origins and beginning of the Spanish Influenza pandemic is that it appears to be inextricably linked to the soldiers who fought during the First World War. The millions of young men in army barracks, military camps and trenches constituted the vulnerable substrate on which the influenza virus developed, became extremely virulent and spread worldwide in October and November (1918).... the Spanish influenza could be considered to be a “historic accident”, another cruel consequence of the terrible First World War.’
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