Quote:
Originally Posted by Arctic Fox
Spanish Flu infected 500 million people and killed an estimated 50 million. The World's population was 1.5 billion.
Comparable rates for today's population of 7.8 billion would be 2.6 billion infected and 260 million killed.
Current figures for Covid-19 are 15.3 million infected and 624 thousand killed.
Possible reasons for the huge differences include:
1) Covid-19 still has a long time to run;
2) Spanish Flu was a lot more virulent;
3) We have managed to contain Covid-19 a lot better;
4) A combination of all of these, plus other factors.
Since we really don't want 259 million more deaths, please continue to be diligent about mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing.
Thank you
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There are many reasons for this, and very difficult to make a comparison with 100 years ago
1) Many of the deaths were due to secondary bacterial infections, in an era with no antibiotics
2) We have anti-viral treatments that were not available 100 years ago
3) Most of today's pandemic viruses are direct descendants of that Spanish Flu strain, but for reasons that virologists cannot explain, these viruses have become less virulent over the years, when the expectation would be for increased virulence
4) There were more deaths in the second wave in 1919
5) We have a better understanding of social distancing, masks, self quarantine today. While they did quarantine flu cases back then, many people lived in very cramped housing in urban areas.
6) Despite a lot less international mobility 100 years ago, Spanish flu made it around the world in a hurry just like today
I'm sure there are more reasons that I didn't think of.