50M people died worldwide from "Spanish" Flu, in a world much different than today, yet within a couple years the world had mostly recovered. So far we are still a long way from that number. The problem is you won't know if you are to be in the dead or gravely ill category, or the mild or perfectly fine category, irrespective of age, until it happens.

What we could have had today is the ability to identify, isolate, and thus properly quarantine those who are ill or spreading, but we did not as a society deem it valuable to invest in (outside of places like S Korea). It's a classic pay me now or pay me later situation; now we are reaping the lack of investment in the past (even before the current ineptitude).

I always thought the lack of a comprehensive nation healthcare system or at least a plan that covered everyone in some way in the US would bite us if there ever was a pandemic. We as a society decided that long term planning was not economically viable or even desirable. But we did not even do a minimum. Now we have to hope for the best.

As a nation having everyone (not just some people) healthy and when not have access to affordable healthcare is a benefit to the nation as a whole and the economy, something that the new German nation back in the late 1800's figured out. How we get there in the US in the future I don't know, I just hope we come to the same realization and do something.