DIRE PANDEMIC STATISTICS
David L. O. Hayward (Retd) Management Consultant, Defense Analyst
Associate at D L O Hayward & Associates
“The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza “A” virus. Lasting February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people–about a third of the world's population at the time–in four successive waves.” The total number of estimated deaths (median figure) was some 50 million. Refer to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
COVID-19 is still at an early stage in spite of optimism among some wayward politicians, anxious to discount the outbreak, reassure voters, restart their economies too soon or gain political clout. Future waves are predicted by the medical fraternity in countries already affected Particular concern is for those mainly undeveloped countries with large populations, low socio economic groups, inadequate medical services and closely quartered refugee camps affording rapid transmission of the pathogen.
It remains to be seen if the present day Coronavirus outbreak will engender comparable statistics to the 1918-20 pandemic. A worst case scenario approaching an equivalent 50 million deaths or greater is plausible given the current world population of some 9 billion people. To possibly fully equate to the Spanish flu outbreak, some 3 billion cases might conceivably eventuate? It does not bear to think how many deaths could potentially occur from among this dire predicted number of cases?
What do you think?