- The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed the total number of fatalities of the 1918 flu pandemic despite the medical advances of the past century.
- Experts say one reason is that the 1918 flu and COVID-19 are two different viruses that work in different ways.
- They add that the primary factor is misinformation that has spread on social media, discouraging people from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
The 1918 flu pandemic, which ranks as one of the deadliest in modern history, has just been surpassed by COVID-19 – in the United States, at least.
That 1918 pandemic killed an estimated
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has killed fewer than 5 million people worldwide, about 1/10 the total of the 1918 flu.
However, more than 680,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, putting it ahead of the country’s flu pandemic more than a century ago.
Put another way: 1 in 500 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, and the end of the pandemic is not yet in sight.
Daily deaths in the United States have reached 1,900 a day during the current surge fueled by the Delta variant, mainly affecting the population of 71 million unvaccinated people.
But how did we get here, and what can we learn by comparing these two public health emergencies?
Source: healthline