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"Demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918." 4x5 glass negative. View full size.
The U.S. population in 1920 was about a third of what it is now, so the death toll for an equivalent pandemic today would be around 2 million.
With all the talk of Ebola these days, let's put it into perspective with what happened in 1918. Nearly 675,000 people died in the United States, including my grandfather, who died when my father was only three months old. An estimated 50 million people died worldwide.
My father's first wife died of flu during the 1918 pandemic in Washington, D.C., leaving a son less than 2 years old.
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