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'Piazza d'Italia' by Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, who lived in Rome in 1918 (Photo: sothebys.com)

Interview

How Europe coped with pandemic 100 years ago

An untreatable virus killing thousands each day, lack of international coordination, little reliable information, and some people flouting self-isolation - that is what happened in the 1918 'Spanish flu'.

The flu killed 50m people worldwide in events with parallels to the 2020 viral outbreak.

"Rather like coronavirus, it [Spanish flu] popped up in various places simultaneously - that's one of the features of a viral pandemic," said Catharine Arnold, a British academic, who wrot...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

'Piazza d'Italia' by Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, who lived in Rome in 1918 (Photo: sothebys.com)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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