U.S. Covid Deaths Top Century-Ago Pandemic Count

 
“The number of known Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. has surpassed the country's death toll from the 1918-19 flu pandemic.
The U.S. on Monday crossed the threshold of 675,000 reported Covid-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks data from state health authorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the influenza pandemic killed about that many people in the U.S. a century ago, in 1918 and 1919. Both figures are likely undercounts, epidemiologists and historians say.
There are several differences between the current pandemic and the one that claimed nearly as many lives more than 100 years ago. The U.S. at that time was roughly one-third its current size, so the flu pandemic took a proportionately bigger toll on the population. That pandemic had a devastating effect on young people, including small children and young-to-middle-aged adults, while Covid-19 has hit older people hardest, according to health officials.
Additionally, there was no vaccine for the flu a century ago, nor antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that the illness can cause, according to the CDC.
Covid-19 vaccines have helped protect many Americans during the most recent wave of infections, especially elderly people, who have the highest vaccination rates and are otherwise at greatest risk of dying from the disease. But the highly contagious Delta variant and low vaccination rates in parts of the country have driven cases and fatalities to levels far above those seen last summer, before vaccines were available.
The first Covid-19 vaccines were administered in mid-December 2020. About 75% of adults and children ages 12 and over have received at least one dose, according to the CDC.” [1]

1. U.S. News: U.S. Covid Deaths Top Century-Ago Pandemic Count
Kamp, Jon; Calfas, Jennifer.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 21 Sep 2021: A.7.