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The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 didn't so much end as lessen in severity to become a seasonal flu. The same is true of the Hong Kong flu of 1968 and probably many others. We may have a century's worth of accumulated respiratory viruses in circulation. https://t.co/2BR3xYKHZf
More tenuously, it occurred to me to wonder if there could be connections to other population-level trends. Testosterone has been declining for decades and no-one seems to be sure why. https://t.co/gHMwIOK2Wf
I didn't find much on the flu-testosterone link in general but there was a study on the 2009 H1N1 that disproportionately affected women. One of the findings was that infections by this specific virus did lower testosterone levels in male mice. https://t.co/91LgRsE7Kl.
To sum up, we seem to have a century's worth of respiratory infections in circulation and there's a possibility that this viral load is contributing to the global decline in testosterone. If anyone knows of any evidence to support or disconfirm this, I'd like to hear it.