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Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

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Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#51

Post by happy_path »

jasonlotito wrote: post #21
happy_path wrote: post #14

I'm mildly annoyed by journalists calling "Spanish Flu" where the 1918 Flu Pandemic had no relationship with Spain. The author could have titled the piece as "Covid-19 overtakes 1918 flu pandemic as deadliest disease in American history" and later, inside the article include some kind of note about that in that time, it was called (mistakenly) "Spanish flu". I'm not advocating for "cancel culture" or auto-censorship…

The way we name these things was in fact recently changed for precisely this reason. I forget where I read this, but yes, this is why it’s COVID 19 and not any of the other bad names that people tried to give it. Unfortunately, names for things in the past are harder to change, because people know it as the Spanish Flu, so even if you said the 1918 flu pandemic, you’d still have to clarify which one at this point in…

Like the Cleveland Indians (founded in 1894)? If your thesis is true, why are they changing their name?

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#52

Post by CodeGlitch »

hbn wrote: post #13

> The Spanish flu was previously the disease event that caused the biggest loss of life in the United States; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 pandemic, in waves of illness that stretched out over roughly two years in this country. > According to STAT’s Covid-19 Tracker, Covid deaths stand at more than 675,400. Why are we comparing raw numbers? If one…

> Not to mention life expectancy went from under 40 to above 70 in the last century, so we have way more elderly people around.

Yes but we also have vastly superior medical knowledge and technology and resources to draw on...but despite that it has still killed 675,400 people in the US alone.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#53

Post by CodeGlitch »

happy_path wrote: post #14

I'm mildly annoyed by journalists calling "Spanish Flu" where the 1918 Flu Pandemic had no relationship with Spain. The author could have titled the piece as "Covid-19 overtakes 1918 flu pandemic as deadliest disease in American history" and later, inside the article include some kind of note about that in that time, it was called (mistakenly) "Spanish flu". I'm not advocating for "cancel culture" or auto-censorship…

It does have a relationship with Spain - because Spain was the 1st country to widely report it.

Other countries were too busy fighting over trenches in France.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#54

Post by emerged »

happy_path wrote: post #50
CountDrewku wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have a good point but changing it now would just be confusing. Historically it has been called the Spanish Flu and I assume everything referencing it during that time uses the word Spanish. I think a mention of how it wasn't actually from Spain is plenty good, there's no reason to alter the name. I think it's good that everyone knows it was historically called the Spanish Flu.

In the same way that Native-Americans are not called redskins anymore, I'd expect more empathy towards Spaniards.

Or just stop bleeding modern society to death with endless identity politics.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#55

Post by happy_path »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #53
happy_path wrote: post #14

I'm mildly annoyed by journalists calling "Spanish Flu" where the 1918 Flu Pandemic had no relationship with Spain. The author could have titled the piece as "Covid-19 overtakes 1918 flu pandemic as deadliest disease in American history" and later, inside the article include some kind of note about that in that time, it was called (mistakenly) "Spanish flu". I'm not advocating for "cancel culture" or auto-censorship…

It does have a relationship with Spain - because Spain was the 1st country to widely report it. Other countries were too busy fighting over trenches in France.

No, Spain was the only country that did not censor the press. The virus did not have origin in Spanish territory. USA, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and UK all had a strong grip on the news.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#56

Post by happy_path »

emerged wrote: post #54
happy_path wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same way that Native-Americans are not called redskins anymore, I'd expect more empathy towards Spaniards.

Or just stop bleeding modern society to death with endless identity politics.

I'm not sure how being more precise when calling a disease is related to "identity politics".

I'm asking for being more rigorous when naming things, not second-hand guessing like this article.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#57

Post by IdontRememberIt »

1) population in USA: 1918 103m vs 2020 331m

2) Spanish flu death distribution by age was totally different (mainly "young" people were dying) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734171/

So if we considere the "years lost" (life expency minus age of death multiplied by the number of cases), the spanish flue was way more impacting.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#58

Post by vmception »

refurb wrote: post #12

Deadliest if you ignore the fact the US population 3 times bigger. But it made you click! And that’s what’s important at the end of the day.

wow, nobody thought of that, you are a genius and a scholar, perceiving so many variables simultaneously!

(the article mentions this)

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#59

Post by CountDrewku »

happy_path wrote: post #50
CountDrewku wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have a good point but changing it now would just be confusing. Historically it has been called the Spanish Flu and I assume everything referencing it during that time uses the word Spanish. I think a mention of how it wasn't actually from Spain is plenty good, there's no reason to alter the name. I think it's good that everyone knows it was historically called the Spanish Flu.

In the same way that Native-Americans are not called redskins anymore, I'd expect more empathy towards Spaniards.

Are you suggesting the word Spanish is a slur? Would you like the word Redskins wiped from all history? Can I flag your comment for removal then?

Stuff like this is such a waste of time for everyone. Do you really think any significant amount of people are holding prejudice towards Spaniards because they attached a disease to their name over a century ago? I mean really, you must have better things to worry about.

Re: Covid-19 overtakes 1918 Spanish flu as deadliest disease in American history

#60

Post by sto_hristo »

It's terrifying to think what Spanish flu would do in today's world. Back then it wrecked the planet in times when almost nobody could joy-travel anywhere they wished on a whim and the world was made up of only 2 billion people.

Today, +6 billion people more and anyone can book a 30 Euro flight to snap a selfie in a different country.

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