Sad Unnecessary Milestone #189 By Hank Silverberg We will reach a sad milestone in the coming week. Sometime, possibly Monday or Tuesday, more people will have died from the Covid-19 pandemic than died in the infamous flu pandemic of 1918. A century ago, before there were flu vaccines and similar shots for many other illnesses, 670,000 people died from the flu in the United States in just five months. This week, when there has been a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine for more than eight months, 668,000 have died from the virus since January of 2020, and we are averaging about 1,800 deaths A DAY right now. (For perspective, about 600,000 Americans died in the four years of the Civil War .) Of course, the population of the country is much bigger now than in 1918, and the deaths have been spread out over 18 months, compared to about five months in 1918, so the impact doesn't seem as great. But this is the 21st century. We have better health care in general than in 1918,