[leilani]

Consider this: More Americans died during the Spanish flu pandemic than were killed in battle during all of America's wars -- from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War, both World Wars and the current conflict in Iraq.

((shudder)) And all in the space of a few months. Really puts things in perspective. I wonder why it just petered out almost as quickly as it started, too.

[SunkenCiv]

It also puts AIDS into perspective, for that matter, or West Nile Virus. West Nile killed something like 54 people in Michigan when it peaked a few years back -- and that wasn't the daily, weekly, or monthly total, it was the entire total. Still a lot of people, obviously, but the 1918 flu epidemic made all of those look like a bad fart.

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Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic by Gina Kolata