First of all I would like to preface this by saying that the media is full of shit and not to be trusted until they remember the difference between entertainment and information. Infotainment is not your friend.
Dear Lithose,
Cytokine storm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults (a phenomenon that could repeat itself in future flu pandemics). In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Hong Kong also indicated this as the probable reason of many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003. Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well.
The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from 1918 to 1919, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. While older estimates put the number of killed at 40–50 million people, current estimates are that 50 million to 100 million people worldwide died, possibly more than that taken by the Black Death. This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms.
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Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
