COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000. “What’s important is whether the infections are severe.”Something similar happened with the H1N1 flu virus, the culprit in the 1918-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, the 1918-19 flu was universally considered the worst pandemic disease in human history. In many ways, the 1918-19 flu — which was wrongly named Spanish flu because it first received widespread news coverage in Spain — was worse. So, will the current pandemic unseat the 1918-19 flu pandemic as the worst in human history?
