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Comment by projektfu | Hacker News Reader

If so, then over the next 100 years it has killed many more than 40M.

The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, annual influenza epidemics result in about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.

Yes, but it is not contagious as covid19 is.

That's not true. The problem is that a subset of persons require ventilation to survive more so than flu

Why Covid-19 is worse than the flu, in one chart https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/18/21184992/co...

on edit: furthermore https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/keyfacts.htm says the range of people catching the flu per season is 3% and 11% whereas the estimates for catching Covid-19 are generally around 40-70%

the second number will decline after everyone catches it, obviously.

what is the second number you refer to?

I believe they meant the "40-70%" figure.

Flus are often widely deflected by inbuilt immunity. The advice didn't take that into account. It also doesn't take into account those numbers are based on pretty flimsy evidence.

What tense are you using?

Over the next hundred years, meaning from 1918 to 2018, since there is an implied starting date from the subject matter. English is a high context language.

I think that "the following hundred years" would be clearer.

I also like “subsequent.”

Aren't "next", "subsequent" and "following" nearly synonyms?

yep, nearly synonyms, which is why reasonable people who are native English speakers are able to disagree about which is best-suited to fit this sentence.

I think reasonable people understood the sentence.

True. I did, and was being ironically pedantic.

Yes.

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