In 1918-1919 the flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 virus, saw 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, become infected. It is estimated that 50 million people died, 675,000 or whom were from the United States. In 2020-2021, so far, 119 million persons worldwide have contracted COVID-19. Some 67.3 million people have recovered and 2.63 million have died. This is nothing on the scale of 1918-1919, but smaller scale epidemics have alerted experts and governments that a larger outbreak like COVID-19 was possible. Little preparation has been made.
