Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu...W74AmBAbyk

"The horrific scale of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is hard to fathom. The virus infected 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims— that’s more than all of the soldiers and civilians killed during World War I combined.

While the global pandemic lasted for two years, the vast majority of deaths were packed into three especially cruel months in the fall of 1918. Historians now believe that the fatal severity of the Spanish flu’s “second wave” was caused by a mutated virus spread by wartime troop movements..."

Now that was a real menace deserving the reactions of global hysteria. Albeit one is forced to admit its deadliness had much to do with the more primitive technology and indeed the military activity spreading it. Since the 2009 pandemic was likewise an H1N1 strain and affected more of the world's population -- yet killed 150,000–575,000 people compared to tens of millions by the Spanish Flu.