kissy thornton, she went around helping everybody who was sick. that lady never got sick or anything. >> back in 1918, i was between 10 and 12 years old, i would say, and i got the flu. it was just my mother and i. i had two friends, we went to elementary school together, and both of them were stricken with the flu. and i would go out to the hospital to go visit her, and they put her out on a porch in the cold wintertime, and they had blankets, blankets, and a hood on. but she died. both of them died. at a young age. people didn't understand. and there was no vaccine. but your parents did the best they could for you. >> the influenza of 1918-1919 was a pandemic, an outbreak of disease around the world which caused serious illness and death. why was the influenza of 1918 so much more deadly than the seasonal flu we experience every winter? what was different about the influenza virus in 1918? >> the seasonal influenza viruses that cause annual outbreaks, epidemics in the united states during our fall, winter, and early spring, those are influenza v