In 1918, the population of the earth was just under 2 billion. Spanish flu killed around 20-50 million, around 2.5% of the population. In today’s figures with a population of 7.8 billion, a similar kill rate would take out 195 million people.

The fatality rate needs to take into account the percentage of the population that actually got infected, and it's unlikely the Spanish Flu and Coronavirus have similar capabilities to spread. Could be more or less, but not likely the same.

Based on the Chinese figures of soem 400+ infections and less than 20 deaths, the death rate is somewhat under 5%. That's kindof high, of course, but a small sample, and we don't know the living conditions of those who were infected in china.

Odds are this won't spread far.

Never trust Chinese government statistics. They have shut down 3 cities.

and we don't know the living conditions of those who were infected in china

Some have ascribed the high rate of Spanish Flu deaths to the weakend condition of the European population resulting from WWI. I don't know if the rate was that high in places that didn't get involved in the war.

from wiki

The disease killed in every area of the globe. As many as 17 million people died in India, about 5% of the population.[46] The death toll in India's British-ruled districts was 13.88 million.[47]

In Japan, 23 million people were affected, with at least 390,000 reported deaths.[48] In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), 1.5 million were assumed to have died among 30 million inhabitants.[49] In Tahiti, 13% of the population died during one month. Similarly, in Samoa 22% of the population of 38,000 died within two months.[50]

In New Zealand, the flu killed an estimated 6,400 Europeans and 2,500 indigenous Maori in six weeks. [51] Dr. Geoffrey Rice has found that Maori died at eight times the rate of Europeans.[52]

In Iran, the mortality was very high: according to an estimate, between 902,400 and 2,431,000, or 8.0% to 21.7% of the total population died.[53]

In the U.S., about 28% of the population became infected, and 500,000 to 675,000 died.[54] Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In the Four Corners area, there were 3,293 registered deaths among Native Americans.[55] Entire Inuit and Alaskan Native village communities died in Alaska.[56] In Canada, 50,000 died.[57] In Brazil, 300,000 died, including president Rodrigues Alves.[58] In Britain, as many as 250,000 died; in France, more than 400,000.[59] In Ghana, the influenza epidemic killed at least 100,000 people.[60] Tafari Makonnen (the future Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia) was one of the first Ethiopians who contracted influenza but survived.[61][62] Many of his subjects did not; estimates for fatalities in the capital city, Addis Ababa, range from 5,000 to 10,000, or higher.[63] In British Somaliland, one official estimated that 7% of the native population died.[64]

This huge death toll resulted from an extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms.[3] Symptoms in 1918 were so unusual that initially influenza was misdiagnosed as dengue, cholera, or typhoid. One observer wrote, "One of the most striking of the complications was hemorrhage from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestine. Bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhages in the skin also occurred".[41] The majority of deaths were from bacterial pneumonia,[65][66] a common secondary infection associated with influenza. The virus also killed people directly by causing massive hemorrhages and edema in the lung.[66]

The unusually severe disease killed up to 20% of those infected, as opposed to the usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%.[2][41]

Thanks for the info. Seems to have hit poor areas with little immunity build up to anything the hardest. For instance, Indian reservations in the US and Canada suffered more than the general population. Samoa with 22% suggest not much virus immunity and its Samoa what recently suffered deaths from measles because there was no inherited immunity in the population.

Immunity in the gut depends on probiotics, fiber and vitamin B. Probiotics and fiber. Probiotics not available everywhere. You also need protein to build white blood cells. Diet plays a role. American diet in the modern era is very poor. And sugar counteracts an other wise good diet.

A bit off topic but what do you think of colloidal silver as a defense against this new virus?

Might be OK. But Vitamin D3 and cinnamon stopped the Spanish flu. People who worked in cinnamon bottling plants never dies from the Spanish flu.

Silver might be OK. But I don't need it.

And it needs to be Ceylon Cinnamon, not the stuff kept in the kitchen. A'zon has several from which to choose.

A couple pulls of collodial silver/day never hurts, either.

And it needs to be Ceylon Cinnamon, not the stuff kept in the kitchen. A'zon has several from which to choose.

A couple pulls of collodial silver/day never hurts, either.

Love the health info stuff...

I take collodial silver now and then, but Ceylon Cinnamon instead of the cheap stuff isn't effective? Or just not as effective?

not the stuff kept in the kitchen

Those kitchen spices are frequently irradiated to keep them fresh. Obviously you do not want that stuff, but the fresh spice itself which is harder to find. ;)

It prevented the Spanish flu.