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We're surpassing the fatalities by number, but the U.S. population is greater than it was in 1918. Percentages would be a better comparison, but I guess that doesn't create the desired (sensationalist) effect.

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The data is bad too, not differentiating "with covid" and "from covid", in death metrics and hospitalizations. As well as not differentiating severity.

"A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases."

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/09/covid-hos...

I think it's also important to point out that the 1918 pandemic, in contrast to the present one, overwhelmingly killed people in the prime of their lives. According to this study of deaths in Canada and the United States, mortality peaked at age 28:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734171/

A graph is included, which drives the point home:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734171/figure/...

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