COVID-19 Is Deadliest Pandemic in United States History

While the Spanish flu of 1918 has held the record as the deadliest disease event in the nation’s history with 675,000 deaths, it is clear that COVID-19, with 674,000 deaths and rising, will soon bypass this number. The global death rate due to SARS-CoV-2 infection is more than 4.7 million. Americans comprise 14% of this death toll. However, although COVID-19 will have killed more Americans than the Spanish flu, the US population in 1918 was much smaller than it is today. This means that the percentage of the US population who died due to the Spanish flu is actually higher than the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to read more.