Influenza almost always selects the weakest in a society to kill, the very young and the very old. It kills opportunistically, like a bully. It almost always allows the most vigorous, the most healthy, to escape, including young adults as a group. Pneumonia was even known as “the old man’s friend” for killing particularly the elderly, and doing so in a relatively painless and peaceful fashion that even allowed time to say good-bye. There was no such grace about influenza in 1918. It killed the young and strong.
