Covid-19 vs The Spanish Flu - No Contest

 The View from the Middle 

Recently, I have seen some talking heads, including Geraldo Rivera on Fox, compare Covid-19 to the Spanish Flu in 1918 and suggest that Covid-19 is now worse than that historic pandemic.  Anyone who makes this comparison is either uninformed, lying or deliberately misleading their audience. They also care more about ratings and clicks than telling the truth.  Let me share some actual truth with you so that you can refute any charlatan that tries to suggest that Covid-19 is worse than the Spanish Flu.

If you want a big dose of the truth about the Spanish Flu, I recommend that you read the book The Great Influenza, written by John Barry in 2005, well before Covid-19.  It will help you understand the massive differences between the 1918 pandemic and Covid-19.  To do a fair comparison, we must consider two adjustments to the death tolls of both pandemics.  First, we must adjust for population differences between 1918 and today.  Second, we must adjust for how the government and media handled the two pandemics.  In 1918, our government and media tried to minimize (Barry suggests they lied about) The Spanish Flu.  Today, our politicians and media are actually exaggerating the death toll of Covid-19. 

In 1918 the total population in the US was only 105 million, and The Spanish Flu supposedly killed 675,000 of our citizens.  I think that number is very conservative, and I will explain why later.  Today, the population of the US is 333 million.  Adjusting for the population difference, that 675,000 deaths in 1918 would translate to over 2.1 million deaths today.  This comparison alone demonstrates the duplicity in trying to suggest that Covid-19 is worse than the 1918 Spanish Flu, but there is more.

The treatment of these two pandemics by the government, the media and the medical community has been absolutely diametrical.  In 1918, the US government and the press intentionally tried to minimize the threat of the Spanish Flu to the public.  We were in the midst of WWI and President Wilson wanted to send troops over to Europe.  Today, the government is actually incenting hospitals to classify virtually any death as a Covid death by offering significant monetary bonuses.  Even Dr. Deborah Birx, from Trump’s original Coronavirus advisory team, suggested that the CDC death count was overstated by at least 25%.

Let me try to demonstrate the pathetic but opposite methodologies used to inform the US public of the severity of these two pandemics.  According to The Great Influenza, The Spanish Flu killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide, and that is when the world population was only 1.8 billion.  Even using the lowest number in that range, the 675,000 reported deaths in the US would have only accounted for 1.4% of global deaths while the US represented almost 6.0% of the world’s population.  And that is for a virus the John Barry suggests may have even begun in the US, but at a minimum ravaged us as terribly as it did the rest of the world.

Today, according to CNN’s Health Webpage, Covid-19 has killed 4.7 million people around the globe.  While all these deaths are tragic, that 4.7 million is a tiny fraction of the worldwide death toll from the Spanish Flu. And that is despite the fact that the world’s population today is over four times larger than it was in 1918 (7.9 billion to be exact).  So, the 678,000 deaths in America from Covid not only places us #1 in the world, but suggests that we represent 14.4% of total global deaths, despite the fact that we now represent only 4.2% of the world’s population.

So, our government wants us to believe that in 1918, we accounted for only 1.4% of the world’s deaths from the Spanish Flu, which ravaged our country and may have even emanated from here – AND – that today we represent 14.4% of global Covid deaths, which probably originated in China.

Let me propose another theory.  We were lied to in 1918 and we are being lied to today.  Our government and media lied in 1918 to minimize the real threat that the Spanish Flu posed to our country and the world to allow us to send our troops to Europe for WWI (read the book).  And today, our government and media are lying to us in order to distract us with fear as they advance a far-left political agenda. 

For the hundredth time, however, let me reiterate that I am not suggesting that Covid-19 is not a serious disease.  And I am not saying that we should not do what we can to mitigate its spread.  However, most of what we have done (masks, social distancing, shutdowns, etc.) have not worked and are only creating more problems that we will have to confront in the years to come.  Wash your hands frequently.  Don’t go to work when you are sick, and get vaccinated if your doctor gives you the OK.  If you have already had Covid and survived, get the antibody test and then all of us need to get on with our lives.

And Finally, if you only remember one thing from this article, let it be this – 99.8% of US citizens did not die from Covid-19.  That is a fact that no one else is telling you!