No. Because there was no test for Spanish Flu, there was no way to trace the disease back to where it began. So how did people get the idea that this disease started in Spain? The Spanish Flu epidemic began during World War 1. All of the countries at war had strict press censorship. In order to prevent panic and keep up public morale, newspapers in warring countries grossly understated their infection and death rates. However, Spain was neutral in World War 1 and had a free press. Newspapers in Spain were reporting that large numbers of people were dying of the flu before similar stories started appearing in newspapers in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, etc. Spanish newspapers also accurately reported the infection and death rate in Spain, which was much higher than what was being reported in the countries at war. When high government officials in Spain got the disease, like King Alphonso XIII, who was gravely ill with it, it was covered daily in Spanish newspapers. However, when high government officials in countries at war got sick, it wasn’t reported at all. This gave people the impression that the disease must have started in Spain, but nobody knows where it actually began.