What the 1918 flu pandemic can teach us about COVID-19, in four charts
Red Cross volunteers in Massachusetts, who were called in to help with health care worker shortages during the 1918 flu pandemic (CDC/)Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including travel advice, pregnancy concerns, and the latest findings on the virus itself.The 1918 influenza pandemic was just long enough ago that it has slipped out of the collective consciousness. But as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads, more and more experts are turning to last century’s flu for clues on how to deal with a public health crisis of such massive proportions.In some ways, an early 20th century event doesn’t provide a great analogue to how a modern disease might evolve. 100 years ago we didn’t have widespread air travel, nor did we have antibiotics, which can’t treat a virus but can help with the infections that often accompany respiratory diseases (and cause many of the deaths in a viral outbreak). 100...