The 1918 flu lasted far beyond 1918. The flu pandemic seemed to affect young people in particular, for reasons that historians and scientists are still debating. Yang noted that the novel coronavirus appears to mutate far faster than the 1918 influenza virus. The 1918 flu virus, after lingering in a deadly form for more than two years, eventually grew milder. People with immunity to the 1918 virus were therefore likely to have some protection from its genetic cousins.
