As we slog our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found some reassurance from studying the 1918 influenza pandemic, the worst pandemic of the 20th century. While the parallels between the two pandemics are frightening, the 1918 pandemic didn't last forever, and this pandemic won't either. We also have some huge advantages that didn't exist in 1918, from ventilators to a drastically better understanding of how to respond to a virus. There's a lot we can learn from what happened in 1918, both from the mistakes made and from the community spirit and volunteerism that emerged to defeat the epidemic.
General Overview
The 1918 influenza pandemic was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Approximately one-third of the world's population was infected by the virus, leading to the death of 50 million people worldwide. Approximately 675,000 in the United States were killed by the pandemic, of which approximately 9,000 were in Connecticut and more than 1,000 were in Waterbury. Most of Waterbury's deaths happened in a single month.
