Free Republic

Some have mentioned that if we adjust for changes in population over the last 50 years (328 million now versus 200 million then), then the US death toll of 100,000 from the Hong-Kong flu of 1968-69 would have to be bumped up to 164,000. But there's another very important data point that has to be factored in as well. The population of senior citizens in the US has risen almost 70% compared to 50 years ago. Senior citizens 65 years and older make up approximately 75% of US COVID-19 deaths, around 60,000. If the percentage of senior citizens in the...

Yes, I remember Woodstock when I was in high school.  Worse than that, I have the 3-disc L.P. somewhere in a box.  I listened to it one time and wished I had sought a refund. Woodstock was awful in more ways than one.  It was dirty, and people behaved very strangely. My mother, who turns 91 today on Mother's Day, looked at the TV news back then and said in Spanish that all of those people were going to get sick so close to each other.  Then she added that it was a natural place for some pandemic to break out. Well,...

An I’m-so-cute-and-clever reporter recently asked the president if he deserved to be re-elected given the number of deaths from coronavirus, noting that the number is greater than American fatalities from the Vietnam war. People can always find something as a point of comparison as if that automatically adds weight to what they are implying. No doubt this reporter thought stats from the Vietnam war added gravitas to her query. In any case, her disrespectful and rude question didn’t deserve to be dignified with an answer. But Trump answered her anyway. Unfortunately, he didn’t use the opportunity to his advantage by...

In all of the hysteria we are seeing I think it behooves us to look back at two Pandemics that have happened in the last 65 years that were worse than this, worse than the Swine Flu, SARS, AND MERS in terms of people infected and deaths from it. 1957-1958 Pandemic (H2N2 virus) In February 1957, a new influenza A (H2N2) virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic (“Asian Flu”). This H2N2 virus was comprised of three different genes from an H2N2 virus that originated from an avian influenza A virus, including the H2 hemagglutinin and the N2 neuraminidase...

Flu May Be Worst in Decades for U.S. Kids By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 17, 2003 Filed at 9:52 p.m. ET The current flu outbreak may be the worst for young U.S. children in several years, some experts say, comparing it in Western states to the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69. A government epidemiologist and other disease doctors predict flu deaths among babies and toddlers will exceed the estimated 92 who die in an average flu year. ``We would expect that number would be higher in a season like this. It would be more than 92,'' said Dr. William...