News > During the Spanish flu pandemic, whisky was medicine

During the Spanish flu pandemic, whisky was medicine

17/05/2021 05:33 PM | Click to read full article

People may be drinking at home to ease the mental and emotional fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 1918, during the deadliest pandemic in modern history, people with the Spanish flu were prescribed whisky for medical benefits. Doctors, frontline workers and flu patients drank the water of life to prevent, and cure, the deadly flu.

Nearly a year after the first wave of the Spanish flu hit India, an article in The Times Of India in April 1919 reported that scientists recommended whisky for flu patients. But was it really useful? 

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