Did Spanish flu, the deadliest pandemic actually originated from China?

There has been much speculation about the true origin of the Spanish flu. We know that it did not actually originate in Spain but until recently the exact source of the pandemic has been a mystery. (1/n)

Recent work by Canadian historian Mark Humphries may have finally solved this puzzle. Humphries has discovered records that suggest that the mobilization of 96,000 Chinese labourers to work behind the Allied lines may have been the source. (2/n)

The archives that he discovered show that an outbreak of a respiratory illness, that was identical to Spanish flu, occurred in northern China months earlier than the European outbreak, in November 1917. (3/n)

Other medical records show that over 3,000 of the 25,000 Chinese Labor Corps Workers transported across Canada to Europe in 1917 ended up in medical quarantine, many with flu-like symptoms. (4/n)

It may be the case that these labourers transported the influenza virus with them to the Western Front from China.
(5/n)

Further evidence for this hypothesis has been provided by historian Christopher Langford, who has shown that China suffered a lower mortality rate from the Spanish flu than other nations did. (6/n)

This could possibly be due to immunity in the population from earlier exposure to the virus.

(7/7)

*End of thread*