Contagion?

A remarkable study by the US Navy and public health department that failed to prove Influenza was contagious.

Documented in a paper by John M. Eyler, PhD (University of Minnesota) called “The State of Science, Microbiology, and Vaccines Circa 1918”

Public Health Services and United States Navy 1918/19 conducted experiments with 100 volunteers in 3 cities over many months.

The experiment began with 100 volunteers from the Navy who had no history of influenza… [The] first volunteers received first one strain and then several strains of Pfeiffer’s bacillus by spray and swab into their noses and throats and then into their eyes. When that procedure failed to produce disease, others were inoculated with mixtures of other organisms isolated from the throats and noses of influenza patients. Next, some volunteers received injections of blood from influenza patients. Finally, 13 of the volunteers were taken into an influenza ward and exposed to 10 influenza patients each. Each volunteer was to shake hands with each patient, to talk with him at close range, and to permit him to cough directly into his face. None of the volunteers in these experiments developed influenza.