COVID-19 surpasses 1918 flu as deadliest pandemic in U.S. history

For more than a century, the 1918 flu held that grim distinction. Here’s what made that outbreak so devastating.

White flags on the National Mall mark each of the more than 675,000 lives lost to COVID-19—which is has now overtaken the death toll of the 1918 flu pandemic. In September 2021, volunteers planted hundreds of thousands of flags as part of a memorial art installation in Washington, D.C.

COVID-19 is now the deadliest disease in American history, surpassing the death toll of the devastating 1918 flu pandemic. More than 676,000 people in the United States have lost their lives to the disease in the last year and a half since the World Health Organization first declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

For more than a century, the influenza outbreak of 1918 held that grim distinction. Over three distinct waves, the virus infected more than a quarter of the U.S. population and caused average life expectancy to drop by 12 years. Here’s a look at the catastrophic damage that it caused as it spread swiftly across the

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