Etaple.

This is coolbert:

From that previous blog entry:

"The influenza pandemic of 1918 having also a definite military dimension to it."

Indeed!

It is often thought the Swine flu [often called the Spanish flu], had as a source of origin the British military camp of Etaple [properly pronounced E-top] in Belgium.

Etaple at any given moment during the Great War having a population of about 100,000 troops.

Soldiers moving to and fro England and to and fro the front.

Etaple being to the greatest extent possible self-sufficient in the production of food.

The camp having both a piggery and a chicken ranch.

It being surmised that the disease "jumped" from the Etaple swine into humans. The rest being history as they say.

The Swine flu a big mystery to the doctors, HEALTHY PERSONS IN THE PRIME OF THEIR LIFE STRUCK DOWN WITH IMPUNITY BY THE ILLNESS.

That German Spring Offensive it is also suggested stalled by troops sickened and weakened to such an extent they were unable to maintain the rapid pace as demanded by blitzkrieg.

Soldiers too on both sides that habitual and common wearing of gas masks only exacerbating the spreading of the disease, masks and filters both becoming repositories for the virus, toxic gases alone not the sole danger from breathing the air.

Nothing further heard from that exhumation of Sykes of the Sykes-Picot agreement. The English diplomat Sykes having succumbed to the disease his remains sealed in a special casket. Scientists wanting an original specimen of the virus for study having the body dug up with an autopsy done, extraction of the virus the goal. Scientists do love this sort of thing.

coolbert.