You know what his point is. And in this case it doesn't really matter since there was no event in US history that caused so many deaths in such a short amount of time except for a gigantic civil war. It's notable that this event eclipses the deaths of multiple wars combined. And if you think about it, it's crazy that it can be compared to any war at all, aka the most deadly human made events in history.

You realize that influenza alone killed about 60,000 people in the US last year (more than the Vietnam War)?  So no it's not hard to compare a single virus death toll to an entire manmade conflict.

Comparing epidemics to wars or natural disasters is a bit crooked. These are all different things, with different circumstances. Above there was the comparison with the 2004 Tsunami, where apparently the death toll of this epidemic has now surpassed that of the tsunami. However the death toll of the tsunami happened from one moment to the next in one area of the world instead of spread out over months and all over the world. They're not comparable. I'd rather live now with this epidemic than experience the tsunami or war, even if this virus claims a million more lives.

I'd much rather be in trenches drowning in mud than have a sore throat and aching muscles.

1918 be like "why not both?"

Okay so I'll give an update on the situation in The Netherlands. Things are still going the right way, with numbers dropping almost as fast as they rose. Almost. Monday there was King's Day, which means, even though there were no organised celebrations this year, pretty much everyone had a day off, which meant there was a spike in reporting yesterday to catch up with the numbers.

Today they announced;

• 514 new cases (about 11% of tests are positive)
• 84 new hospitalisations
• 84 new registered deaths from the last few weeks where one occurred as far back as 20 March

In total that makes;

• 39,316 cases, of which an unknown number has been recovered
• 10,769 hospitalisations over the course of the epidemic
• 4,795 deaths

Graphs from the report;

The number of registered new cases per day, yellow means those added today.

The number of hospitalisations per day, this isn't the total amount of people in hospitals, it is the amount of new people per day, again yellow is those registered today.

ICU occupancy, this is the total amount of people at any given day in ICU. The two days after the dotted line can still be slightly adjusted up or down.

The amount of reported deaths per day, yellow those added today.

Current 'corona-measures' are still in effect until 20 (-ish, I forgot the actual day) May. A week before that they'll decide what happens afterwards with bars, restaurants and things like zoos and museums. Shops, except hair dressers and similar things, never closed. A handful of bigger chains did close, but most of have reopened this or last week. Primary schools and child daycare are reopening 11 May, the rest at a later day. Sports for children has resumed this week, though no matches. Events and professional sports are still cancelled until 1 September.

Damaged kidneys, heart, lunges, even heart and brain tissue.
Blood clots forming all over the place.

A trip to a hospital, sitting with a tube up your nose, pushing in high oxygen,.... lateron a trip to a ventilator.

Some people barely get any effects.
Others survive, but afterwards they have brain damage, or lunges/kidneys/heart ect.

There was a Actor that got put on a ventilator, got a blood clot (the virus does this), and his leg got amputated.
He survived, with only minor damage to his lunges, but lost a leg.

This virus doesnt kill many, but alot that survive will have signs of it.
This isnt to say you cant "live" with brain damage, or ruined lunges, or reducted kidney/heart funktion.... but probably not fun.

The best option is still to avoid getting infected.
There seems to be little ryme or reasoning as to how badly it goes.

Thats why its called the Spanish Flu.

Other european countries were afraid to speak the truth, about the pandemic.
Scared of their enemies knowing they were weaken, or the moral hit, their soliders would have, if they knew it was like this all over the place (and not just their units).

The spanish went against convention and reported on it in news papers, telling the truth of the matter to its readers.
And thus it came to be known as the Spanish Flu.

Plan now in most states with republican governors is to open up the economy again and if low wage front line workers don't want to go back to work from fear of not being protected enough then they will just be booted off unemployment rolls.  Oh and republicans want to have protection for employers so they can't be sued even if they don't provide their workers with adequate gear, testing or response.

So you either show up to your low wage job and possibly get sick and die or you can starve and possibly die.  This is class warfare and no matter how many of us poor people die we will still outnumber the ultra rich.  Time to grab pitchforks and form a socially distanced mob from California to DC.

Can't wait for the second spike.  I'm looking around mid May to return back to my job which luckily for me is manufacturing job that isn't too crowded with people.

The last free zone in Canada has been hit

Nunavut has our first case of Covid-19. More to follow. @aptnnews pic.twitter.com/tSDejzaeuW

— Kent Driscoll (@KentDriscoll) April 30, 2020