ABSTRACT
Open Rome has as one of its objectives to coordinate GROG, the regional network for influenza surveillance. In 2007, we had to teach some 300,000 French health workers about avian flu and pandemic planning, and to illustrate that an influenza pandemic is a serious threat. But to illustrate this point, we needed stories to tell, historical examples that could illustrate what might happen in a future pandemic. What is bewildering to us is that mortality figures can vary so dramatically. Some argue that the Spanish flu caused 10 million deaths, while others argue that it was 20 or 40 million. The mortality figures from the Hong Kong flu are also variable. For physicians and scientists, this variation is a problem that raises questions about the difference between historical facts and supposition.
