Kolata writes: "It was a disease so awful that it terrified people for generations."
Seattle policemen wearing protective gauze face masks during the influenza pandemic of 1918. (photo: Getty)
12 March 20
The fear is similar, but the medical reality is not.
t was a disease so awful that it terrified people for generations.
The 1918 flu pandemic, thought to be the deadliest in human history, killed at least 50 million people worldwide (the equivalent of 200 million today), with half a million of those in the United States. It spread to every part of the world, affecting populations in Japan, Argentina, Germany and dozens of other countries.
Maybe most alarmingly, a majority of those killed by the disease were in the prime of life — often in their 20s, 30s and 40s — rather than older people weakened by other medical conditions.
