The accepted answer to this other question of mine mentioned that
epidemics like the Spanish influenza are thought to be strong evidence of Satan’s being confined to the vicinity of the earth.
This kind of caught my interest since I had read this book about the 1918 flu by Gina Kolata for which the author had interviewed researchers that had worked on finding the causes behind the Spanish influenza.
Just for summary, some of the features about this pandemic were things like
- That it killed young adults to a much larger degree than a typical flu.
- That the outbreak was widespread in the summer and autumn in the
Northern Hemisphere; influenza is usually worse in winter (one reason to this is that people tend to stay more indoors in social settings). - That during the 15 month period that it ravaged the planet it killed people in such faraway places as Brevig (Alaska), Bombay (India), New Zealand, South Africa, and Spitsbergen.
One of the researchers interviewed in the book was virologist Jeffery Taubenberger who said that a virus that is this good for killing people is "far out on the edge of what is possible for influenza viruses" (p.304; reference added to the bottom of the page) because any mutation would likely make it weaker (additionally a much stronger virus might kill its host before being able to propagate).
So clearly the virus behind that pandemic was of a rather nasty type.
Considering the significance that Jehovah's Witnesses place on the events during the years of the First World War, do they view this influenza as having been caused by Satan? Has any official Jehovah's Witness statement ever been made on this?
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