A perspective on the pandemic

Thus far in the United States, we have had 16.5 million cases of SARS coronavirus (COVID-19) illness with 303,000 deaths (as of Dec. 16). That is a 1.8% death rate. Our population is 330 million.

In the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 1918-19, about 675,000 people in the United States died. The population of the US in 1918 was 103 million. It is estimated that there were over 34 million cases. (U.S. combat deaths in WWI totaled 53,400.)

Worldwide there have been 74 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,653,000 deaths. It is estimated that in 1918, over 500 million people were infected, or one-third of the world’s population. There were over 50 million influenza deaths worldwide.

The influenza of 1918, also called the Spanish Flu, had the highest death rate among young adults ages 15-40 and among pregnant women. This was unusual because influenza commonly kills the young (under age 2) and the old (over age 65.) Most people died from secondary bacterial lung infection, i.e. pneumonia.

The highest COVID-19 death rates are among people over age 65, those of minority ethnic groups, and those with other chronic conditions such as respiratory diseases, circulatory diseases, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and Alzheimer’s disease.

This article is meant to compare and contrast the pandemics of 1918-19 and 2019-20.