AHC: Much lower death toll from Spanish flu of 1919

Are there any plausible ways of doing this with a POD no later than 1917? If possible, I'd like to see the US still entering the First World War, but I know those returning servicemen were one of the key transmitters of the virus back to North America. Anyway, aim for a death toll of one million or less.
 
A shorter WWI, leading to less hunger and suffering after the war? Hunger is a force multiplier for disease.
 
Depends where it actually started. If it started in Kansas, then no WWI mobilization in the US means that it might never leave Kansas.
 

mowque

Banned
Are there any plausible ways of doing this with a POD no later than 1917? If possible, I'd like to see the US still entering the First World War, but I know those returning servicemen were one of the key transmitters of the virus back to North America. Anyway, aim for a death toll of one million or less.

Do you have to have it? If not, easy to butterfly away.
 
Trench warfare is like a R&D facility for diseases. The longer it goes on, the greater the probability of something truly nasty being unleashed. Shorten the war and the expected virulence of the flu would be lessened. So how about this: The US doesn't declare war (no ZT perhaps) and instead insists that a status quo ante bellum peace must prevail sometime in 1917. The US is concerned that if the war continues its trading partners will be devastated for a generation and nobody will be able to pay back the massive loans it has already extended without destabilizing their governments. The US is also greatly concerned about developments in Russia.
 
With a scenario where the US doesn't enter WWI, would there still be limited outbreaks in North America from returning Canadian veterans? I'm no expert on America-Canada border control in this era, but I'm guessing it was pretty porous.
 
With a scenario where the US doesn't enter WWI, would there still be limited outbreaks in North America from returning Canadian veterans? I'm no expert on America-Canada border control in this era, but I'm guessing it was pretty porous.

Possibly, but you'd have a bodycount far below one million.
 
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