Summary

In Chapter 6, Barry notes that evidence, presented by Loring Miner, suggests that the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic originated in remote Haskell County, Kansas. Miner served as the county coroner and county health officer for that area. Miner was a man who kept up to date on advances in medicine. He had even built a laboratory in his office. Miner had been quickly overwhelmed with cases of an especially violent and deadly form of the flu. Even though the flu was not a disease that was reported at that time, Miner informed national public health officials about his cases because he believed the disease was dangerous and that his experience with it had been unusual.

Haskell County was so sparsely populated that if it had not been wartime, the disease might have not spread beyond that area. It is possible that a...