I wonder about your statistics from 1918, just because the numbers don't add up. The flu in 1918 killed 5% of those who were infected, but you said it killed 5% of the entire population of the world, which would suggest that every single person in the world was infected.
I read that 40 million people died. Oddly though, in all my (I admit somewhat limited study) of world history, in all my (public school) learning, I never before HEARD of this horrible epidemic in 1918.
I would be tempted to ask how big a deal it could have been if it doesn't make the top 20 list of big events in the last hundred years. But I know that history is not an exact science.
"I wonder about your statistics from 1918, just because the numbers don't add up. The flu in 1918 killed 5% of those who were infected, but you said it killed 5% of the entire population of the world, which would suggest that every single person in the world was infected."
You are right, I mispoke. I regurgitiated a figure I had misread. We had over 40,000,000 dead worldwide and about 600-700,000 in the USA in under a year. We lost about 1/6 as many in WWI
"I read that 40 million people died. Oddly though, in all my (I admit somewhat limited study) of world history, in all my (public school) learning, I never before HEARD of this horrible epidemic in 1918.
I would be tempted to ask how big a deal it could have been if it doesn't make the top 20 list of big events in the last hundred years. But I know that history is not an exact science."
Try this link for a good read on the subject:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/
1918 was the worst disaster in human history.
Both of my grandfathers were serving in the US Army in Europe during 1918 and both were infected with this flu. One nearly died; the other was much luckier with a mild case.
How big was the Spanish Flu? It basically ended World War One having caused so much chaos on both sides of the trenches, the war was just sort of called off.