1976

The current Swine Flu outbreak isn't the first in recent memory. In 1976, an Army recruit from Massachusetts complained of feeling ill to his drill sargeant at Fort Dix. He died of what was later diagnosed as the swine influenza virus and within weeks, fear of an epidemic led to mass vaccinations.



This useful timeline from Google uses archival news coverage to describe the decisions taken by doctors through to then President Gerald Ford in coping with the epidemic and how ultimately the vaccine itself led to more people becoming ill than the virus itself.