Is COVID-19 similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918 or is comparing these two diseases a false equivalency? ?

Answer 1

!00 years ago the world population was 1/4 of what it is now 1.8  billion

By comparison the Spanish flue was far worse in fatalities.

Answer 2

Two things can be similar without being the same. Foxes and dogs are similar but they're not the same. Saying Covid-19 is the same as the Spanish flu would be a false equivalency but saying they're similar is not.

Answer 3

obviously, they are not the exact same thing. There are several videos on youtube that compare them.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spani...

Answer 4

Just about half way down is a pretty intelligent discussion about the topic. Another source said that the main thing they have in common is that they are "novel". No human has any immunity:

https://theconversation.com/compare-the-flu-pandem...

Answer 5

As far as I know, they are biologically unrelated.

In terms of damage to the human race, note that the world's population was around 1.5 billion in 1918, now it is about 7.5 billion. The death toll in the flu pandemic of 1918/20 was dozens of millions, the toll so far in Covid is close to one million, and will go higher, but, hopefully, not much higher.

In 1918 much of the world was starting to recover from WW1, thus the immune systems of many people were not at full strength.