Covid has killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 flu

By CARLA K. JOHNSON
AP Medical Writer

COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000. And like the worldwide scourge of a century ago, the coronavirus may never entirely disappear. Instead, scientists hope the virus that causes COVID-19 becomes a mild seasonal bug as human immunity strengthens through vaccination and repeated infection. For now, the pandemic still has the United States and other parts of the world in its jaws. U.S. deaths are running at over 1,900 a day on average, and the country’s overall toll has topped 673,000. The 1918-19 influenza pandemic killed 675,000 people in the U.S. when it had a population one-third the size of what it is today.