THE COVID-19 pandemic has been compared many times to the “Spanish flu” of 1918. The latter infected 500 million people and killed around 50 million people. That is more than the casualties from World War 1.
The symptoms of the Spanish flu were eerily similar to those of COVID. They both started out as symptoms of the seasonal flu that spread quickly through the population.
The Spanish flu originated from an army camp where 1,100 soldiers were infected in one month.
A very important thing to note about the Spanish flu was that it had a second wave – one that was much worse than the first. The second wave had a “W curve” that showed a high number of deaths among the young, the old, and a spoke among the middle-aged. It could kill an otherwise healthy 24-year-old in a manner of 24 hours.
One of the reasons why the second wave happened, aside from less advanced medical science, was the lack of quarantine.
The difference for us in 2020 is that the word “quarantine” sounds as routine as brushing your teeth. The infection rate and death toll from the current pandemic are high, but could have been worse if not for the quarantine measures.
One issue I see now though is that people seem to have the idea that COVID-19 has magically disappeared. When the numbers dropped and businesses started to slowly reopen, social distancing was thrown out the window. Clubs, bars and restaurants are packed once more.
Some countries don’t even require the use of facemask anymore. If not for the ubiquitous hand sanitizer you would forget that COVID-19 even existed.
As of now, there are 16.1 million cases of the virus worldwide; 9.27 million have recovered and 645,000 have died. Some countries are seeing a resurgence in cases just when they thought they have “flattened the curve”.
Back home in the Philippines it’s as if the first and second waves have overlapped. If COVID-19 follows the trend of the Spanish flu and mutates, then sad to say we may reach 500 million again very soon./PN
