More Americans lost to Covid-19 than 1918 flu pandemic: Report

Despite all the scientific and medical advances of the past 103 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has now killed more Americans than the 1918 flu pandemic did. Over 675,000 people in the United States have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

That surpasses the estimated US death toll from the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century. According to a report by AFP, some 50 million died worldwide in the flu pandemic making it the deadliest event in human history, according to epidemiologists.

But the United States has borne a disproportionate 14 percent of those fatalities, despite making up only five percent of the world's population.

The American population in 1918 was less than a third of what it is now, meaning the flu deaths would be equivalent to some 2.2 million in today's terms. Unlike today's influenzas, which impact children and the elderly the most, the 1918 flu caused unusually high mortality among young adults.