Think about it, people

Conditions in the United States of America are on track to allow deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic to surpass those from the Spanish flu outbreak. The Spanish influenza pandemic is often held up as metric of comparison against the current pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Think about it, people: an estimated 400,000 Americans dead in one year from COVID-19 versus 675,000 Americans dead from the Spanish flu across four waves in three years.

The 200,000th American to die from COVID-19 perished on Tuesday the 22th day of September 2020.  This death fell upon the Autumn Equinox, the first day of fall. People will squabble over whether they actually died of COVID-19 or from other underlying diseases. Such is how clever, stupid people reason away reality in deflection of evidence in dereliction of intellect. How many people who die of influenza “died more from” diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease? 

Two hundred thousand Americans are now known to have died from COVID-19 from the 1st of January to the 22nd of September this year. Researchers now suspect some people died of it back in late 2019 before the disease was recognized within the USA. As of 21:01 PDT on Wednesday 23 September, however, there are 201,880 confirmed American deaths from COVID-19. A total of 6,933,248 Americans have been or are infected. I don’t know if these numbers include anyone and everyone inside the United States, or citizens from other nations who happen to be here in the States when they became sick, or Americans abroad who were or are ill.

In addition, many deaths from the novel coronavirus may be undercounted. A number of reports over the past few months range from thousands of undercounted deaths in America to tens of thousands to possibly up to 250,000 un-or-undercounted. Different jurisdictions have different methodologies and limited resources. In many places deaths from COVID-19 among prisoners, Blacks, Latinx, and other impoverished or disenfranchised groups were recognized as being undercounted or misidentified. There’s also a separate category called, “deaths from despair,” where people free from COVID-19 committed suicide because the pandemic affected their jobs, careers, and personal finances as well as their mental health. 

In less than 9 months 200,000 people are confirmed dead in the United States from COVID-19. The possibility is real this number could already be double from undercounted or misidentified deaths. While anything could change as more data emerges, of course, the death toll is expected to soar to 400,000 confirmed deaths from the novel coronavirus by the end of this year. 

The Spanish flu pandemic, by comparison, killed an estimated 675,000 Americans in four waves across three full years from March 2018 to December 2020. It may have been infecting and killing people as early as 1916. More US military died from this mutant strain of influenza than from combat in the First World War. Global casualties from the Spanish flu run from 20 million dead up to 100 million deaths worldwide. At the same time major revolutions and civil wars raged around the world in the wake of the First World War including Russia, China, Mexico, Germany, Ireland, Turkey, India, Paraguay, among a surprising number of countries. Even the United States was embroiled in a series of overlapping race and labor wars between Americans. This political instability affected national and global responses to the Spanish flu.

Viruses weren’t discovered until the 1930s. People knew a contagious infection spread influenza, but doctors were looking to identify unknown bacteria as that’s what they knew back then. Americans in 1918 also knew wearing masks, washing hands, self-quarantine, and practicing what we nowadays call social distancing markedly slowed or stopped the spread of the mystery flu “bugs.” Those municipalities and jurisdictions choosing to ignore those precautions paid the price with sometimes more corpses than there were people to dig the graves. 

Think about this: 200,000 dead in eight and a half months with possibly many thousands more uncounted? With reasonable predictions of 400,000 dead under the Trump regime before the end of this year? With a nation gripped by the worst recession since the Great Depression, by the worse political polarization and violent civil strife since the 1960s and maybe the 1860s, and by multiple catastrophes amplified by global climate change? With humanity stuck in an unexpected return of traditional big-power conflicts threatening new rounds of major peer-to-peer warfare not seen in three-quarters of a century?

Yes, there are differences between 1918 and 2020. The economy was international in 2018, but it wasn’t globalized and certainly wasn’t digitalized. There weren’t any interstate freeways, for one thing, and certainly no electron microscopes, space satellites, Internet, or cellphones. Still, parallels to the turmoil, instability, and bloodshed during and after the Spanish flu pandemic feel uncomfortably familiar. Human nature is our common denominator.

What is certain is the bulk of the blame can be laid directly at the feet of the Usurper in the White House, Donald J. Trump, the man who fancies himself as somehow being elected President of the United States. The Trump Administration and all those who support it’s divisive, negligent, and sloppy policies and its war on science, the environment, and protestors at the expense of fighting these viruses. In a sense we are to blame as we allowed this man to usurp our country. Still, his administration is in power and dismantled the structures put in place by every administration since the terrors of the Spanish flu and subsequent novel pandemics to battle these “wildfires” of infection. Trump dismantled what George W. Bush and Barack Obama put in place for the 2008-2009 swine flu pandemic and the ebola outbreak of 2013-2016. Such dismantlement borders on criminality. 

We must prepare ourselves for the perfect storm we all sense is coming our way. Dismissing the apocalyptic chaos all around us as “worse-case scenarios by talking heads addicted to bad news” is denial, deflection, and won’t stop the storm. Bringing one’s self-awareness to what is so regardless of how one likes or dislikes our circumstances is the necessary first step of acceptance. We must in this contradictory age of paranoia, technoeuphoria, and social isolation learn to root ourselves in our communities. Don’t grumble now as I don’t have the answers as to what steps to take next and how. Wake up, figure those out, and share.

William Dudley Bass
Wednesday 23 September 2020
Tuesday 29 September 2020
Monday 26 October 2020
Last updated on Friday 24 September 2021
Seattle, Washington
USA
Cascadia
Earth
Sol

Updates #1:
This is Tuesday evening of 29 September 2020, and the first presidential debate between Trump the Usurper and Biden the Challenger have concluded. Deaths worldwide crossed the one million dead mark yesterday, Monday the 28th of September. These are confirmed deaths from COVID-19. Confirmed deaths in the United States of America from this novel coronavirus hit 205,000 sometime around Sunday evening – Monday morning. The number of confirmed cases in the USA was 7,190,036 infected, including recovered, and 205,974 dead from COVID-19 as of 21:16 PDT tonight.The trend is generally flat in the United States altho some states and territories are rising as others fall. The debate on reopening the economy is ferocious. 

Update #2:
As of this moment, Sunday midnight rolling into Monday the 26th of October 2020, the confirmed death toll in the United States stands at 225,230 dead as of 23:46 PDT Sunday 25 2020 with 8,636,165 confirmed dead. The trend is rising in all states and territories with occasional flat plateauing. About a week or so ago there was an estimated additional 100,000 Americans who died from other causes but as a consequence of COVID-19’s negative affects on suicides as well as resource availability/unavailability for people injured or seriously ill with other conditions.

Update #3:
As of midnight as this Sunday the 31st of January 2021 rolls into Monday the 1st of February, the confirmed death toll of American dead from COVID-19 now stands at 441,319 with an estimated 500,000 additional deaths unconfirmed from COVID-!9. The larger number is probably unconfirmable as the majority are already buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of. After a run of deaths topping 4,000 on some days, the trend seems to be falling as 2,731 died yesterday. Joe Biden has been the legal President of the USA since his inauguration on the 20th of January, and his administration is busy cleaning up the chaotic mess left behind by the bungling, fumbling, treasonous Trump administration. Mass vaccination campaigns are in process, however chaotic and discriminatory they’re proving to be, but three of the newer viral mutations are proving far more contagious and perhaps even deadlier. More cases of long-term chronic illness with unexpectedly bizarre symptoms commonly referred to as, “Long Covid” are also become more widespread. This concludes updates to this article. One finale update after this pandemic passes may be considered. Thank you, and stay healthy.

*UPDATE # 4:
May this be the last update here. Since the last update the Delta variant of this coronavirus has spread out of control along with some other viruses. Most of those infected and dying or dead are those who refused to get vaccinated and buy into the deadly quackery of false belief systems. The number of breakthru infections remains miniscule. The Biden Administration is being rocked by the political turmoil around COVID vaccines as it continues to grapple with the multiple messes of its incompetent predecessor. In the meantime, however, the number of deaths in the United States from COVID-19 has surpassed those of the First World War’s Spanish flu pandemic. An estimated 675,000 Americans died from the 1918-1920 influenza. Today 686,349 Americans are confirmed dead from COVID-19 as of 14:46 PDT this Friday 24 September 2021.

Sources:

Editors. “Spanish Flu,” History .com, Oct 2010, May 2020: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic.

Staff. “About COVID-19: Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 2020: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cdcresponse/about-COVID-19.html.

Also see the following by the Author:
Bass, William. “Did the Spanish Flu cause the Great Depression?” On Earth at the Brink, April 2020: https://williamdudleybass.com/spanish-flu-great-depression.

Copyright © 2020, 2021 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.