My friend Laurie Garrett: the 1918 Flu had a LOWER lethality rate than COVID-19.

[brooklynite]

(interview on Rachel Maddow).

The issue would seem to be, the risk of death is low among the infected, but the risk of infection is incredibly high.

[MFM008]

1. Oh boy

[Renew Deal]

2. Medacine, care, and information is better in 2020.

[hatrack]

5. Yes, witness America's Freebirth, Anti-Vaxx and Bleach-Drinking subcultures . . .

.

[Renew Deal]

6. I forgot hygiene

Is there a vaccine for covid-19?

[The_jackalope]

7. No. If there is, it's still 18 months out. Nt

[Hekate]

17. Not under Trump it's not. He dismantled all the relevant departments & sent the scientists packing.

Two years ago.

[blm]

3. Yikes

[elleng]

4. ;-(

My grandmother died from the 1918 flu; I never met her (obviously,) Dad had her/his mother only for 5 years. (In NYC, of course.)

[applegrove]

8. COVID-19 kills the elderly and people with health conditions.

Children are less likely to getting really sick from it.

[Renew Deal]

11. Thankfully?

[applegrove]

15. Changed my words. Thanks.

[Renew Deal]

24. That was funny

[I_UndergroundPanther]

12. I'm not thankful

I have diabeties. I am disabled and I am not thankful I am in the crosshairs of covid 19.

[applegrove]

14. Vibes. I changed my wording.

[BigmanPigman]

23. The Spanish Flu nailed the healthier, younger people

who were in their late 20s, early 30s. That was really odd...the normally healthy people were the ones dying.

[applegrove]

26. I thought so. Never studied it. But i did see a documentary from 20 years ago where

someone got the idea that 1918 flu victims who died, and were buried in the far north, might still carry the same Spanish flu virus in their frozen bodies. So they have it. Somewhere. Don't know if it is live.

[dflprincess]

28. I believe the theory is

that the Spanish Flu sent their immune systems into over drive & what killed them was the extreme immune response. More apt to happen when to someone is younger and has not been exposed to as many viruses as an older person and, ironically, has a stronger immune system.

[Amishman]

29. The reasoning behind that is believed to be cytokine storm

essentially the virus causing an uncontrolled immunological reaction. Healthy immune systems do more damage.

Covid-19 is believed to be doing this in some of the fatalities as well.

[Tanuki]

30. Yes...the young and healthy were killed by "cytokine storm"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome

[MFM008]

34. it could change.... germs are like that

no rules.
1918 Flu killed all age groups but decimated the 20 to 40 age group.
Something about the extreme reaction of the immune system,
People were dead after just a few hours with the flu.
Victims in ice dug up were still purple/blue in the face from lack of oxygen.

[Roland99]

36. What citations do you have to back that up?

The dr / whistleblower was not elderly and I’m not aware of any health condition(s) he had

[applegrove]

42. Here is a link.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

[Roland99]

43. Excellent. Very useful.

Thanks!

[katmondoo]

9. My Grandfather died from the 1918 flu epidemic. My mother said how hard life became after his death.

She was ten years old with three younger siblings. He was about 32. Sick for only 3 days before he died.

[elleng]

10. 'Similar' here,

my grandmother died from the flu epidemic too, but Dad was the 'baby,' only 5 years old, so Grandpa had to raise the family of 5 kids.

[Ilsa]

16. It appears that the Spanish flu was more deadly to

People aged 20-35. COVID-19 appears to kill more of the elderly.

[yonder]

25. I wonder if that higher youthful toll in 1918

could be from the camp conditions and concentration of younger ages associated with the mobilized/demobilizing forces and anyone else associated with the drawdown of WW1?

[Ilsa]

27. Definitely, I think. nt

[Submariner]

37. My grandfather died at 32 from the flu in 1918

According to my grandmother, he was a lean strong longshoreman who was a never sick at all kind of guy. He was a healthy immigrant from Genoa who got a cough and died 3 days later.

[3Hotdogs]

18. How "elderly" are those elderly?

I ain't no spring chic -- sorry rooster, anymore.

[Fiendish Thingy]

20. Lethality climbs for those over 60 (3%),skyrockets for those over 70 (16%) nt

[3Hotdogs]

38. I'm fucked.

Bye. it's been good to know yiz.

[mommymarine2003]

19. My grandfather died from the flu in 1918.

My grandmother was pregnant with twins and came down with diphtheria. She survived, but she lost the babies, and they were buried with my grandfather. My father was 2 and his sister was 6. My grandmother must have been a very strong woman to endure those hard times. I have very little tolerance for anti-vaxxers.

[GoCubsGo]

21. What an awesome time to have had your entire NSC's entire global health security unit shut down!

Along with the whole pandemic response unit! Heck of a job, Trumpy!

[2naSalit]

22. What it sounded like to me too.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

31. Dear Brooklynite -

Please tell your friend, Laurie Garrett, that when I was in grad school (Public Health), her book was required reading for anyone serious about that PhD. I devoured her book when it was published and it still sits on one of my many bookshelves, as I find myself taking it out from time to time to confirm a reference. It was a brilliant, exhaustive tome of investigative science journalism, that I still recommend to students for its extensive coverage. And her book is still relevant today. She has a life-long fan in me.

[SDANation]

32. At this point, the 1918 pandemic was much scarier

We don’t know how deadly Covid 19 is yet because we only have a data set based on a small population. The Spanish flu killed 50 million people, world wide during a time when the only major mode of transformation was ships. From an excerpt:

“ The unusually severe disease killed between 2% and 20% of those infected, as opposed to the usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%. Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults (see figure 1), with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old (see figure 1). This is unusual since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70), and may have been due to partial protection caused by exposure to the previous Russian flu pandemic of 1889.”

http://www.influenzavirusnet.com/1918-flu-pandemic/mortality.html

If that same virus started today it would kill at least 100 million if not more, because of mass travel.

[ProfessorPlum]

40. what do you mean by "at this point"?

what "point" do you think we are at with the coronavirus except the very beginning?

[captain queeg]

33. My dad told me a story from the rural south.

They had a small farm. A hired hand tried to kill my grandpa; shot him with the family shotgun. It was bird shot and far enough away it didn’t kill him. The sheriff arrested the guy but while he was in jail the sherif and witness died of the flu so they had to let him go.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

35. When making statements like that, please keep this in mind:

Most of the data we have so far is out of China, where millions of people live in close proximity, have questionable diets and hygiene and relatively poor access to modern medical care and facilities.

What I'm saying is that we don't have statistics on this virus from a modernized nation, so those numbers may not mean much.

That's not to downplay the seriousness and risks, but just saying the stats out of China may not be relevant to us.

[ProfessorPlum]

39. She is masterful on these topics. The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust are both must reads