In the late 19th century, a deadly illness spread across Asia and into Europe, infecting millions, and prompting what may have been the world’s first “infodemic” — with news (and rumors) about the infection traveling in realtime, via telegram. A teenaged Winston Churchill even wrote a poem about it. Sometimes called “Russian flu” or “American fever” the illness rarely affected children, but caused adults to lose their sense of taste and smell. Is it just possible that “Russian flu” was a coronavirus? 

The Naked Mole Rat is a podcast by Libo/Libo. Visit our website: https://libolibo.me/  

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This episode was produced by Andrey Borzenko, Ilya Marritz, Danil Astapov, Anastasia Medvedeva and Lika Kremer. Our sound editor is Ildar Fattakhov.