ATLANTA (The Southern African Times) – The flu pandemic from 1918 to 1919 killed about 675,000 people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The coronavirus pandemic is officially the deadliest pandemic in American history, ending the unofficial reign of the 1918 influenza pandemic.According to the John Hopkins’ coronavirus resource center, the United States has crept past the 675,000 coronavirus death mark. That number is important because 675,000 is the estimate for the total number of deaths due to the 1918 influenza pandemic.According to the CDC, deaths from the coronavirus pandemic are projected to increase in the coming weeks, and the 700,000 death mark could be hit before 2022. While the coronavirus pandemic has been more deadly than the 1918 influenza pandemic in raw numbers, when the context is taken into account, it might not be considered as deadly.
In 1918, the US population was around 100 million. Today, it stands at close to 330 million. 675,000 deaths in 1918 was 0.675% of the total population, compared to 0.205% in 2021. The influenza pandemic led to nearly 200,000 deaths in just October of 1918 alone. The ‘Spanish flu,’ as it was dubbed, came in like a wrecking ball.There is also the reality that the 675,000 deaths from influenza is, at best, a rough estimate. Close to a quarter of the US population lived in states or territories that didn’t report numbers. Medical science made it more difficult to determine what truly was the cause of death. There are enough problems with the number 675,000 to call it simply an estimate.The US could have passed the real count months ago, or it could be months away.
