Definitely not the first to post on this but am completely floored by a 2008 paper published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases by Professor David Morens (Medical Epidemiologist), Dr Jeffery Taubenberger (Virologist), and Dr Anthony Fauci (Immunologist) at the NIAID. 1/11

In the paper the authors question the cause of mortality during the 1918 pandemic and those which follow. They go on to hypothesize and prove that bacterial pneumonia is actually the prominent causative factor during viral respiratory pandemics. 2/11

Part of the methodology was examining several histological specimens which had been preserved from the pandemic. They found that in essentially every single case there was evidence of severe acute bacterial pneumonia either as predominant or in conjunction with virus. 3/11

The paper notes that previous post mortem cultures picked up bacterial colonization with more than half of those being pathognomonic. 4/11

Morens et al. note that subsequent pandemic deaths were also attributable to secondary bacterial pneumonia following primary viral infection despite significant advancements in medicine. 5/11