COVID-19 death toll in US surpasses 'most severe pandemic' 1918 Spanish flu

With more than 675,400 COVID-19 deaths, the United States on Monday surpassed the total casualties recorded during the deadly 1918 Spanish flu as the novel coronavirus became the most dangerous disease to hit in American history. Previously, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] documented the Spanish flu, which lasted for about two years, as the event that caused the biggest death toll in America with an estimated 675,000 fatalities. But according to the global Covid-19 Tracker on September 20, the US accounted for roughly 14 percent of the nearly 4.7 million total fatalities worldwide from the COVID-19 pandemic making the disease “the deadliest ever”. American death toll topped as the world’s highest even when the country comprises just 4.2 percent of the total global population. 

In 1918, the Spanish Flu cases were first documented in Kansas, United States, and caused nearly 50 million casualties worldwide. Reports suggest, that the US population at the time approximately a century ago was only one-third of the current. And 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic was the “most severe pandemic” in history for the United States. It was triggered by the H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin, according to CDC. The virus was first detected in Spain and the pandemic was declared on 21 May 1918. It later took its course worldwide throughout 1918-1919. The first cases in America were first identified among the military personnel. 

About one-third of the world’s population became infected with the deadly virus, with mortality among children younger than five years old. There was no vaccine to protect against the Spanish flu infection and no antibiotic treatment to mitigate the severe symptoms, as with COVID-19, CDC states. The virus spread around the First World War, and the last noticeable wave was documented until 1920 in parts of New York, South America, Switzerland, and Scandinavian nations. COVID-19, meanwhile, has killed nearly 4.6 million people worldwide. Health experts have blamed America’s “poor response” during the early stages of the pandemic that may have controlled the cases as a major cause of the mounting death toll.  

America 'still in pandemic mode', warns Fauci 

US top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci had earlier warned that the COVID-19 is “nowhere near under control” in the United States and the cases have surged more than ten times higher than they need to be in order to end the pandemic. His remarks followed the warnings about the upcoming coronavirus mutations, which he said, could be even more contagious than the delta of the coronavirus lineage and cause more deaths. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in a televised interview that the pandemic was "not even modestly good control" and "until the cases dip to 10,000 a day, we are still in full ‘pandemic mode."

Image: AP