Pandemics are nothing new in the history of the world. However, the more recent outbreak was the Ebola virus back from 2013 to 2016. Ebola was named an epidemic since it wasn’t as far-reaching as a pandemic. We thought it would be interesting to look back at one of history’s worst pandemics, named the Spanish Flu or H1N1 virus.
In 1918 technology and especially medicine, was not as advanced as it is today. COVID-19 affects older people and those with preexisting conditions. The Spanish Flu was the opposite. It affected children younger than the age of five. However, people 65 and older and people between 20 and 40 weren’t wholly immune to the virus either. No vaccine was created at that time, unlike our situation today. People had to rely on nonmedical methods of avoiding the virus, like quarantine, good hygiene, and disinfectants. A vaccine would not be created till the beginning of World War II. All in all, The Spanish Flu was responsible for the deaths of 50 million people worldwide or 1/3 of the world’s population. COVID-19 has killed nearly 2 million people.