3 ms·

The regular flu is 0.1%. The 1918 pandemic had a mortality rate of 2%, and killed 50 million people.

• refurb 7y ago
  In 1918 the world population was 1.8B. If every single person got infected, and the mortality rate was 2%, then that's 36M. Something wrong with your numbers.
  • PostOnce 7y ago
    You're nitpicking for no reason; they're close approximations. maybe it was 2.1% or 1.9% maybe it was 40 million or 60 -- record keeping 1918 globally may not have been exactly computer-perfect. There was a war being recovered from, the world was still poor, and medical science inexact. The GP's point stands, I think.
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    • refurb 7y ago
      It’s not 1.9% or 2.1%, the fatality rate would have to be 10% for those numbers to work.
  • natmaka 7y ago
    Hypothesis: some were infected, survived, then reinfecterd and died.
  • Aeolun 7y ago
    From wikipedia: > It infected 500 million people around the world,[2] or about 27% of the then world population of between 1.8 and 1.9 billion, including people on isolated Pacific islands and in the Arctic. The death toll is estimated to have been 40 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million
    • refurb 7y ago
      Ok, if it infected 27% of 1.9 billion, that’s 500M people infected. 50-100M of those die, for a fatality rate of at 10 to 20%, not the 2% referenced in OP.
• Barrin92 7y ago
  The Spanish flu infected about 500 million people and killed about 50 million according to most estimations. That's a death rate of 10%. It should also be said that the 1% rate for COVID-19 is probably too high because a lot of cases appear to be hardly symptomatic. The cruise ship had 3 deaths up until now, all over the age of 80.