1918, 1957, 2020 Big Pandemics and their Economic, Social and Political Consequences
The excess death toll was around 1.1m worldwide, including around up to 116,000 in the U.S. • “The global mortality rate of the 1957 –1959 influenza pandemic was moderate relative to that of the 1918 pandemic but was approximately 10 -fold greater than that of the 2009 pandemic.” • Scaled up to 2020, here’s what that would mean: 130,000 -215,143 additional dead Americans, again without social distancing and lockdowns.
Worldwide, the 1957-58 flu killed around 1.1 million people.
But struck again in January and February 1958.
And again in 1959-60.
It was a nationwide pandemic.
“For those who grew up in the 1930s and 1940s, there was nothing unusual about finding yourself threatened by contagious disease. Mumps, measles, chicken pox, and German measles swept through entire schools and towns; I had all four. Polio took a heavy annual toll, leaving thousands of people (mostly children) paralyzed or dead. There were no vaccines. Growing up meant running an unavoidable gauntlet of infectious disease. For college students in 1957, the Asian flu was a familiar hurdle on the road to adulthood.”—Clark Whelton, “Say Your Prayers and Take Your Chances: Remembering the 1957 Asian Flu Pandemic,” City Journal, March 13, 2020.
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