Similarities, differences between the 1918 and 2020 pandemics
In many ways, 2020 looks like 1918, the year the great flu pandemic was triggered. As then, science cannot crush an insidious but preventable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it.
WASHINGTON – The country’s leading infectious disease expert warned this week that the coronavirus pandemic could reach the level of the 1918 flu pandemic, which devastated the world between 1918 and 1920 and killed millions of people.
“This is a pandemic of historical proportions. I think we cannot deny that fact. It’s something that I think when history remembers it, it will be comparable to what we saw in 1918, ”said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Wrongly called “Spanish flu,” the 1918 pandemic was caused by a deadly strain of influenza and is considered one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It infected about 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population at the time, in four successive waves.
RELATED: 2020 Virus-Affected Looks Like 1918 Despite Science March
Fauci’s comments were made Tuesday during a question-and-answer session by the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative, adding that he hopes current and future interventions will prevent such a disaster.
“If you look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic, where 50 to 75 million people worldwide died, I mean, that was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic,” said Fauci. “I hope we don’t even get close to that with (COVID-19), but it does have the ability or the ability to tackle it seriously.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions hearing on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC (Photo by Al Drago – Pool / Getty Images)
Fauci noted the “strong similarities” between the two health crises, including that both situations involved the appearance of a new infection.
“That was influenza, this is coronavirus, which essentially prevailed over the human population,” he said. “It had two characteristics that are what makes it, like I say, ‘the perfect storm.'” And that is a virus that jumps species, but that almost immediately has an extraordinary, capable and efficient way of spreading from human to human. Simultaneously with having a considerable degree of morbidity and mortality. “
Fauci discussed the current challenges facing the United States in relation to the new coronavirus, adding that “the numbers are quite sobering.”
The country leads the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths with more than 3.4 million infections and 136,000 reported deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
RELATED: CoronavirusNOW.com, FOX Launches National Center for COVID-19 News and Updates
Hospitals across the country have run out of space amid a resurgence of cases. As of July 15, nearly 56,000 patients across the country were hospitalized for COVID-19, and 38 states were seeing an upward trend in recently confirmed cases.
“Particularly in areas like California, Florida, Arizona and Texas. They are seeing a record number of cases, “he said. “We have a serious situation here in the United States.”
Fauci suggested that there is a link between the increase in cases and those states that are trying to reopen businesses and lift other restrictions.
“The mostly young individuals were seen in bars gathered in crowded places, many of them without masks, which really adds fuel to the fire,” Fauci said.
“Our challenge today and tomorrow and next week is to try to contain these outbreaks and get back on the track of not only containing, but also opening safely,” he added.
RELATED: Interactive Map Shows Risk of Meeting COVID-19 at Events of Different Sizes Across the Country
This story was reported from Cincinnati.
