The name emerged during the outbreak because media reports suggested Spain was the worst hit country in Europe. However, these reports weren’t quite what they seemed. At the time, Spain had no wartime censorship of news reports, unlike Germany, England and France, who quashed news of disease for fear that it might damage morale. The media blackout in these countries therefore made it appear that Spain had far more cases than anywhere else. (For their part, the Spanish media tried to blame the disease on the French.[76]
