IN THE spring of 1918, North Americans were complaining about an unseasonable flu that was sweeping through several cities. They and the rest of the world were still blissfully unaware of what was in store for later that year: a pandemic that would kill 50 million people, or by some estimates many more – certainly more than the Great War that was still raging.
Some 90 years later, we’re in the same position: suffering a relatively mild outbreak of a novel flu virus of the same family, H1N1. The difference is we now know this virus could turn into a monster. We know, too, that “could” is…
