Spanish flu has become synonymous with a viral apocalypse and, now, with the Covid-19 pandemic. This false equivalence depends largely on a spurious statistic that should never have been published.

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was caused by a particularly virulent strain of influenza virus. It infected 500 million people, caused around 50 million deaths, and its impact was so severe that ...

How some cities ‘flattened the curve’ during the 1918 flu pandemic Social distancing isn’t a new idea—it saved thousands of American lives during the last great pandemic. Here's how it worked.