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

by Gina Kolata

Dr. Edwin D. Kilbourne, who was then chairman of the microbiology department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, proposed that influenza pandemics came at approximately eleven-year intervals. The virus, Kilbourne argued, periodically mutated into a new creation that few could fight off. The last pandemic was in 1968, which meant, he had predicted, that the world in 1976 was almost due for a new influenza strain. In fact, by coincidence, the same day that the virologists at the Centers for Disease Control identified the Fort Dix viruses as swine flu, The New York Times published an op-ed piece by Kilbourne describing the periodic nature of influenza pandemics and warning that a new pandemic was likely to strike. It appeared with a headline that said, “Flu to the Starboard! Man the Harpoon. Fill ’em with Vaccine! Get the Captain!” and it was illustrated with what Kilbourne described was a “hyperbolic cartoon,” showing a man overboard grasping for a life preserver.