Lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic: Miller Report for April 26

Editor’s note: Dr. William Miller, chief of staff at the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital, is writing weekly reports concerning the COVID-19 situation on the Mendocino Coast. We are pleased to be running his health column, with details on the medical fight against the pandemic. The views shared in this weekly column are those of the author, Dr. William Miller, and do not necessarily represent those of The Mendocino Voice or of Adventist Health.

In 1918, the world experienced a pandemic caused by a particularly virulent strain of the influenza A virus.  Over the course of two years, it went around the world in four big waves, then faded.  By the end of the pandemic, it is estimated that 1/3 of the entire world population had been infected and that about 30 million people had died.  The virus, the H1N1 strain of influenza A, is still with us today and occasionally causes illness, but nothing like in 1918.  It was responsible for the Russian flu epidemic of 1977 and the Swine flu pandemic in 2009.