A perspective on the pandemic

Thus far in the United States, we have had 16.5 million cases of SARS coronavirus (COVID-19) illness with 303,000 deaths (as of Dec. 16). That is a 1.8% death rate. Our population is 330 million.

In the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 1918-19, about 675,000 people in the United States died. The population of the US in 1918 was 103 million. It is estimated that there were over 34 million cases. (U.S. combat deaths in WWI totaled 53,400.)

Worldwide there have been 74 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,653,000 deaths. It is estimated that in 1918, over 500 million people were infected, or one-...