General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCovid-19 deaths vs. 1918 pandemic deaths
As of today, worldometer lists 520, 852 deaths in the U.S. due to Covid-19 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
The 1918 H1N1 epidemic (Spanish influenza) killed about 675,000 Americans before it subsided.
I think Covid-19 will be worse.
Please wear your masks, social distance, wash your hands. Get a vaccination as soon as you can.
True Dough
(17,331 posts)But it's also worth noting that the U.S. population in 1918 was just over 100 million, less than one-third of what it is now.
Mariana
(14,861 posts)if we only had access to 1918 medical care. Yikes.
I replied the same idea, at the same time, except I took it from now to then, instead of then to now.
If I'd have gotten to the OP 30 seconds later, I probably just would have done a +1 to your reply.
Tree Lady
(11,498 posts)A lot of them soldiers in huge buildings stuck together hardly any care given since they lacked our medicine etc.
I wonder if less people would have been killed if not for the war they would have been at home not traveling around spreading virus.
Mariana
(14,861 posts)No ventilators. No antivirals. No antibiotics for secondary infections. No steroids. Etc.
NutmegYankee
(16,201 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,647 posts)and possibly convalescent plasma.
jpak
(41,760 posts)If nothing had been done.
This toll will be greater than the "1917 Flu" (as trump called it).
True Dough
(17,331 posts)they had access to bleach to inject into their systems back then too!
ProfessorGAC
(65,212 posts)But, medical science's life saving capabilities are very far advanced compared to 103 years ago.
So, we might call it worse despite the % of population difference.
If this was the virus in 1918, who knows how many people it would have taken.
NutmegYankee
(16,201 posts)This completely had the potential to be worse. Only real difference was the 1918 flu picked off the young adults because of cytokine storm.
Lettuce Be
(2,337 posts)Marthe48
(17,035 posts)And I thought how we've passed WWI, WWII and Korean War and Vietnam totals, and it keeps going.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)US deaths in WW I were only 117,000 while deaths of other combatants totaled about 10,000,000 with France, Germany, and Russia suffering the most combatant deaths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties
World War II casualties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)675,000 * 328 / 103 = 2,150,000 dead normalized to today's population.
The US death rate was 8.6 / thousand in 2018, so during that year about 8.6 * 328,000 = 2,820,000 Americans died from all causes.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)We are only beginning to see the long term effects of it.
Poiuyt
(18,130 posts)I'm guessing that people back then would have used the protective measures if they had the benefit of Dr Fauci.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)When the United States finally decided to enter World War I in 1917, there was opposition at home by those who wanted America to remain neutral in the European conflict and groups who actively opposed the draft, the first of its kind in the country. The most vocal dissent came from pacifists, anarchists and socialists, many of whom were Irish, German and Russian immigrants and whose loyalty to America was openly questioned.
Fearing that anti-war speeches and street pamphlets would undermine the war effort, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress passed two laws, the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, that criminalized any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the U.S. government or military, or any speech intended to incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty. (These were different and separate from the Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798 that were mostly repealed or expired by 1802.)
The two broadly worded laws of 1917 and 1918 ultimately came to be viewed as some of the most egregious violations of the Constitutions free speech protections. They were written in an environment of wartime panic, and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of more than 2,000 Americans, some of whom were sentenced to 20 years in prison for sedition.
A handful of those convictions were appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts as constitutional limits on free speech in a time of war. One famous decision penned by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes introduced the clear and present danger test, which he compared to shouting fire! in a crowded theater.
The Wilson administration knew that many Americans were conflicted about the U.S. entry into World War I, so it launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to instill hatred of both the German enemy abroad and disloyalty at home. Wilson publicly stated that disloyalty to the war effort must be crushed out and that disloyal individuals had sacrificed their right to civil liberties like free speech and expression.
https://www.history.com/news/sedition-espionage-acts-woodrow-wilson-wwi
The non-Anglo Saxon part of the population largely regarded the US Government as being dominated by those in cahoots with Great Britain. Which was largely true.