- Dr. Fauci recently warned that the coronavirus could rival the Spanish flu if people continue to ignore basic safety measures like social distancing and wearing masks.
- The Spanish flu killed about 50 million people in the early 20th century.
- The number of new coronavirus cases is increasing rapidly across the United States.
Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said that the coronavirus has the potential to rival the devastation caused by the Spanish flu, a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people in the early 1900s.
“If you look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic in which between 50 and 75 to 100 million people died worldwide,” Fauci said earlier this week, “that was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic. I hope we don’t even come close to that with [COVID-19] but you have the ability to approach it seriously. “
Fauci further explained:
This is a pandemic of historical proportions. I think we cannot deny that fact. It is something that I think that when history remembers it, it will be comparable to what we saw in 1918.
…
That was influenza, this is coronavirus, which was essentially pushed on the human population. It had two characteristics that make it, as 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.
Although some might try to quickly dismiss Fauci’s comments as a display of fear, the current state of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States suggests that Fauci’s dire warning is well-founded.
The stark reality is that the number of new coronavirus cases is increasing in several US states, and in some areas, the rate of new coronavirus cases is not only increasing, but accelerating. Over the weekend, for example, Florida reported nearly 15,300 new cases of coronavirus. To put that figure in context, there are more new cases in a single day than any other state has reported since the pandemic began a few months ago.
Recently, some have tried to minimize the severity of the growing coronavirus cases by arguing that the death rate was not rising alongside them. And while that was the case over a period of time, states like Florida are now seeing an increase in coronavirus-related deaths. This week, for example, Florida reported 156 deaths from coronavirus in a 24-hour period, a figure that overshadowed the previous high of 132 deaths.
Meanwhile, Florida’s neighbor to the north, Georgia, is apparently backing down in its own fight against COVID-19. Earlier this week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp banned cities from requiring citizens to wear masks in public places. Instead, Kemp said the masks are “strongly recommended” but should not be required. Georgia, meanwhile, has seen a huge increase in new coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
A pinch of promising news, amid all the bad, is that the first trials of a Moderna coronavirus vaccine have been extremely promising.
Longtime Mac user and Apple enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry in general for over 6 years. Her writing has appeared on Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and more recently, TUAW. When not writing and analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni likes to watch improv shows in Chicago, play soccer, and cultivate new addictions to television shows, the most recent examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.
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