Flu fact of the day

Here is Revere at Effect Measure:

We currently have fewer staffed hospital beds per capita than we did in the last pandemic, 1968 (the "Hong Kong flu").

He offers further wise words and note that this hypothetical projection is one of the better case, mutation-free scenarios:

Now take a bad flu season and double it. To each individual it's the
same disease but now everybody is getting it at once, in every
community and all over the world. In terms of virulence, it's a mild
pandemic. It's not a lethal virus like 1918. But in terms of social
disruption it could be very bad. If twice as many people get sick, the
number of deaths could be 80,000 in the US instead of 40,000. Gurneys
would line the hallways of hospitals and clinics. And absenteeism
amongst health care workers would compound the problem. Infrastructure
would probably survive intact. No need to have your own water supply or
electricity generator. But it would be a very rough ride.

All of this could plausibly happen from this virus without it causing anything more than the usual case of influenza.

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