A recent estimate claims that Covid-19 is officially the deadliest outbreak that hit America in recent history.
The official tallies claim that covid-related fatalities surpassed those of the 1918 influenza pandemic, according to data of Johns Hopkins University, as per a CNBC report.
On Monday, the reported deaths because of Covid surpassed 675,000 and are steadily rising with an average of over 1,900 fatalities each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The nation is also being struck by a new wave of infections fueled by the ultra-infectious delta variant.
The 1918 flu ended the lives of an estimated 675,000 Americans, according to data from the CDC. It hit the country in three waves between 1918 and 1919.
Up until recently, it was labeled as the most lethal pandemic in the country’s recent history.
Dr. Howard Markel, a physician and medical historian of the University of Michigan, said that he believes that, at this point, we are well done with historical comparisons.
He explained that it is time we stop analyzing the events of 1918 as a guide of how to act now and begin looking forward to presenting times.
“This is the pandemic I will be studying and teaching to the next generation of doctors and public-health students,” he added.
To be sure, a simple side-to-side comparison of raw data for each pandemic isn’t extremely relevant for the situation, especially when you take into account the immense medical, technological, social, and cultural progress that occurred over the past hundred years, according to Markel and other health experts.
It’s crucial to take into account population when you analyze outbreaks or disasters, according to statisticians and experts.
The reason why that is important is simple – Let’s see a very specific example: In 1918, the population of the USA was only 103 million people. Currently, there are over 330 million people in the USA.
If you scale the numbers, the flu took the life of 1 out of every 150 Americans, while Covid claimed the life of one out of 500 Americans so far.
Also, the way how the virus killed its hosts is completely different from that of the flu. Covid is particularly harsh on elderly people and those with underlying health conditions.
The flu was unusual because it killed numerous young adults. That may be a result of World War I, which had massive movements of men march across Europe and America.
Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA advisor on Covid vaccines, said that we now have numerous extra advantages that our ancestors from a century ago didn’t have, which makes the doctor frustrated.
The country is in a worse spot than it was one year ago, as a considerable part of its population is still unvaccinated.
“I can tell you that we see a lot of children hospitalized as well, who have high-risk conditions and the problem is not that they didn’t get their third dose. The problem is that they are unvaccinated,” added Offit.
The whole flu situation was addressed in an official WHO document.
