My own grandfather almost died in that 1918 epidemic. He was 20 at the time.
More died from “the Spanish Lady” than died from WWI. Kolata’s book is interesting in that the peak year appears to have been just that, the peak; the couple of years or so before had killer flu seasons, as if building up to the really bad one, and the killer flu seasons which followed for a couple of years or so kinda tapered off. It’s an interesting book, in any case.