The Centers for Disease Control estimates that, in the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic, approximately 675,000 people died in the United States. In 1920, the U.S. population was 106 million. In 2020 it is 331 million - three times the 1920 number. So if we want to see how the 1918-1919 flu would have played out with today's population, we need to multiply by three, which gets us to a little over 2 million.
In 2018, a total of 2.8 million people died in the United States. This is all deaths, from all causes.
If the coronavirus turns out to be as bad as the 1918-1919 flu, we can expect total deaths to increase by 2 million, an increase of roughly 70 percent.
I'm putting these rather horrifying numbers out because, after President Trump's performance on Wednesday, I no longer trust what the federal government is telling the American people about the coronavirus.
(For an interesting Smithsonian article on disinformation during the 1918-1919 flu epidemic, click here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment