She was a retired CDC scientist who had studied both Ebola and influenza. She made some predictions about Ebola that proved accurate some months later so that inclined us to believe that she was in fact a retired CDC scientist.
It was her belief that the human population is every bit as likely to experience an exponential population boom and bust as every other species. We have had the boom. She expected a bust is coming.
Her main interest here was following reports of flu outbreaks. She considered hybrid flu to be the disease most likely to deliver a near-extinction blow to the world population. This is due to the virulence of hybrid flu and the ease and speed that it can spread. Hybrid flus are “swine flu” or “bird flu”, animal flus that have crossed with human flu. 1918 was one of those.
That’s what I was looking for!!
Thank you for the summary!