Vance further explained that the comparison of case fatality rates between the two outbreaks need to take into account things like the considerable advancement in modern healthcare to take care of sick people and the public health infrastructure to identify and respond to pandemics. If all of the mild cases of illness that have been off the radar were included in the case counts, the case fatality rate would likely drop.
Moreover, current testing is not necessarily picking up all the mild cases of illness. Vance noted that for the current outbreak, the fatality rate is a moving target with case fatality rates varying significantly between countries and over time, making it difficult to compare. The case fatality rate during the 1918 pandemic is estimated to be greater than 2.5% (that is, of the confirmed sick people, about 2.5% died). How severe is the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the 1918 influenza pandemic? It’s too early to compare exact case fatality rates since we’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Vance Kawakami, a senior epidemiologist in our department (and fellow comics fan). It’s likely that the virus triggered an overreaction by the immune system in this age group, a phenomenon known as “cytokine storm.” In comparison, the current pandemic is due to a new coronavirus, which has tended to result in milder illness in young people but more severe illness for older adults and people with underlying health conditions. But the strain of influenza in 1918 was particularly deadly among young, previously healthy adults. In 1918, it spread globally with the movement of troops from WWI.īoth influenza and coronavirus cause respiratory illness with similar symptoms of fever, cough, and in more severe cases, pneumonia. Like in the current coronavirus outreak, this was a virus that started in animals then jumped to human populations so no one had immunity to it-that’s why it spread so quickly. The pandemic of 1918 was due to an influenza virus. So what do they have in common and what’s is not the same? Differences in the virus The current COVID-19 pandemic has significant differences from the 1918 pandemic. Given the circumstances, there’s little gratification in being so spot-on.īut not everything is the same between 1918 and today. Even though we put a lot of thought into illustrating life during a pandemic, it still has been surreal to see it play out much like the comic book shows. Ten years later, for the centennial of the great influenza pandemic, David and I collaborated on a serialized web comic, “ Pandemic in Seattle,” about what specifically happened in our region at that time and what could happen in a modern pandemic.Īnd now, two years since that web comic published, we are in a global pandemic. I created the comic book with artist David Lasky as a way to help people visualize what a pandemic could look like and how disruptive it would be for everyday life.
When I wrote the comic book No Ordinary Flu in 2008, we were anticipating a global pandemic from avian influenza, similar to what happened in 1918 (known then as the “Spanish Flu”).
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