3 ms·
"The Black Death was 30-50% of the population in Europe. The "Spanish" Flu of 1918 killed about .64% of the US population." The populations were much lower bac
by pmoriarty 5y ago
"The Black Death was 30-50% of the population in Europe. The "Spanish" Flu of 1918 killed about .64% of the US population."
The populations were much lower back then. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, so there are probably many more deaths to come.
- dham 5y agoHong Kong flu killed (100,000 people) 0.05% of US population in 1969. Would be around 160,000 people today. Although as a whole we were much more healthier back then. Lower weight etc. It's no inconceivable that if the same exactly Hong Kong flu hit the United states today there would be more deaths than Covid, due to the much poorer health of the nation.
- claytongulick 5y ago> The populations were much lower back then As a percentage of the population, why would this matter? Other than for population density which you would generally expect to cause an increased rate of infection, not less.
- pmoriarty 5y agoIt matters because a million people dying is worse than ten people dying, even if those ten people were 50% of some population and the million were only 10% of another population.
- giantg2 5y agoEven if that's true, that doesn't support your position. Conservative estimated deaths: Coronavirus - 3M Black death - 75M (in ten years) Spanish flu - 35M