Pandemic of 1889 caused by Electricity?

A man with influenza, taken in hand by a doctor, surrounded by dancing politicians. Wood engraving by Pépin (E. Guillaumin), 1889.

    Sure, we've all heard about the Spanish Flu - or the Pandemic of 1918  - but what do you know about the Pandemic of 1889 - The Russian Flu? The 1918 outbreak coincided with the Great War and is now known to be an H1N1 virus that spread death across the world. But in 1889, at the height of the Belle Epoque, virology was unheard of. Some scientist now believe the 1889 Flu was the first COVID-19 outbreak. Peculiar observations made during the Russian flu pandemic included the loss of smell and taste not caused by nasal congestion. These and other observations documented in the historical records point more to COVID-19 than to an influenza-like disease. The long recovery period and the frequent neurological sequels mentioned in case reports and following years of fatigue, lack of concentration, depression and anxiety also resemble what is now described as "long haulers or long covid" symptoms. Of particular note is the frequent mentioning of persistent headaches weeks and even months after the acute infection, causing memory issues reported after the 1889 pandemic and now after COVID-19, while such reports are not prevalent after the Spanish flu influenza. 
     And the Russian flu outbreak occurs exactly when EJ, Daisy and Endie Polk were visiting the Exposition Universelle in Paris for the opening of the Eiffel Tower, and then in Milan studying at the Milan Conservatory. Here is an excerpt from the Chapter "Potions, Puccini & Pandemics";

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And we lived in a flu-terror all winter keeping close to our apartments when not at school. The Conservatory never closed, and private lessons continued. We took the prescribed linseed oil in warm salt-water as prescribed by our Medico, and unknown potions created by Bianca she insisted we drink at morning and night. Mother might have refused, but had come to trust Bianca to such a degree that anything she insisted on was done. And she did not like Italian doctors. Many in the community still wore the long black plague masks to avoid the air, but not for the reasons we now know to be true. Many in Italy, including our good doctor, believed in miasma theory. The theory held that epidemics were caused by miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter. All disease then was caused by a noxious form of bad air, also known as night air. The theory was eventually abandoned by most scientists and physicians after 1890, replaced by germ theory.
     As winter moved on and a warming spring arrived at the end of March, we also found an improved outlook and grew less fearful. The newspapers reported on isolated outbreaks but also predicted that the warming season would improve the flu outlook for most cities, and that the worst bad air was past. This turned out to be highly optimistic and had no basis in fact. 
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The final bit of this biological tale concerns the history of conspiracy theories. An article in a December 1889 edition of The New York Times reported that the flu was mostly harmless. “There is nothing fatal about the universal cold”. Papers around the world also promoted "remedies" of quinine, an antimalarial drug that is the antecedent of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Dr.'s warned against these, but their warnings were unheeded. There were theories that it was caused by electrification of cities, or from telegraph poles. One Dr. in Chicago with dubious credentials claimed the source was stardust passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. Still other physicians soberly rejected this idea for other causes such as volcanic dust or bird migrations.     Migration of a kind was surely to blame for the speed and breadth of the spread. 1889 to 1890 marked the largest number of people traveling between continents and the highest record transatlantic ship travel in the history of the world to that date. Everyone was heading to Paris for the great exposition and then back home.
   In the end, the 1889 pandemic killed one million people out of a worldwide population of about one and a half billion. It was the last great pandemic of the 19th century, and is among the deadliest pandemics in history with recurrent outbreaks through early 1895.

Citation: Brüssow, Harald, Brüssow, Lutz; "Clinical evidence that the pandemic from 1889 to 1891 commonly called the Russian flu might have been an earlier coronavirus pandemic." Microbial Biotechnology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.1388
Image: http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/cf/85/07e5093703d1a44724afcc4ec11d.jpg