[GOP_Proud]

Wasn't the '68 thing the Hong Kong Flu? I don't remember it being a disaster.

[blam]

"Wasn't the '68 thing the Hong Kong Flu? I don't remember it being a disaster."

My only child was born that year and I don't remember anything peculiar about it.

[Allegra]

Wasn't the '68 thing the Hong Kong Flu? I don't remember it being a disaster.

I think so. It was some kind of Asian flu. I was a kid living in Italy (military brat) at the time and I caught it right around Christmas time. I don't remember it being any big deal and I think I got over it pretty quickly.

[etcb]

The pandemic of 1918-19, known as the Spanish flu, sickened an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of the worldwide population, with a death toll believed to exceed 20 million. In the United States alone, some 500,000 people died. An ordinary flu epidemic kills an average of 36,000 Americans.

The next pandemic, the Asian flu of 1957-58, killed about 70,000 in the United States, while the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu led to about 34,000 deaths in the United States.

According to this article, the Hong Kong flue led to 2000 less American deaths than an ordinary flu epidemic!!