[lit-ideas] Re: flu vaccine/WW1
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 10:17:04 -0700
on 10/27/04 11:46 AM, Harold Hungerford at hh@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> The 1918 flu epidemic killed 675,000 Americans and at least 21 million
> others worldwide. Estimates go up to 50 million.
>
> In the First World War, a bit over 5 million soldiers died on both
> sides, of whom 126,000 were Americans.
>
Without calling into question your point, may I note that your war deaths
figure seems a little low. Here's John Keegan on the subject:
"To the million dead of the British Empire and the 1,700,000 French dead, we
must add 1,500,000 soldiers of the Habsburg Empire who did not return, two
million Germans, 460,000 Italians, 1,700,000 Russians and many hundreds of
thousands of turks; their numbers were never counted."
I make that 8.4 million, not counting Turks, Armenians, Americans and...
Two other things to bear in mind: the number of post war casualties--people
in wheelchairs who died of urinary tract infections, for example--is not
recorded, but the statistics on death within age cohorts are startling.
Among men born between 1892 and 1895--those who were between 19 and 22 when
the war broke out--between 35 and 37 percent (depending on country) were
killed.
I am relying on John Keegan, "The First World War," p. 423.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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