Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It

by Gina Kolata

What if babies and children who were exposed to the 1890 flu responded by making abundant quantities of antibodies? Taubenberger asked. And what if the 1918 flu virus had a similar protein on its surface so that the antibodies to the 1890 flu also vigorously attacked the 1918 flu virus? If that happened, the immune system itself, instead of the flu virus, could be causing the flu deaths. In a gross overresponse to the 1918 virus, armies of white blood cells and fluids could rush to the lungs of flu patients. The healthier people were, and the better their immune systems, the more likely they would be to die when they were infected with the 1918 virus. If that hypothesis is correct, Taubenberger said, it would mean that the 1918 flu virus was not deadly by itself, but instead was deadly because it came at the wrong time.