My father always said that we only remember one or two generations back.
No, it’s not the worst pandemic. Many of the following ones killed 1 million to 280 million people:
1. Prehistoric epidemic: Circa 3000 B.C. (70 to 280 millon death toll)
2. Plague of Athens: 430 B.C. (100,000 death toll)
3. Antonine Plague: A.D. 165-180 (5 millon death toll)
4. Plague of Cyprian: A.D. 250-271 (5,000 a day for months)
5. Plague of Justinian: A.D. 541-542 (30 to 50 millon death toll, half world population at that time)
6. Black Death: 1346-1353 (50 millon death toll)
7. Cocoliztli epidemic: 1545-1548 (15 millon death toll)
8. American Plague: 16th century (90% indigenous death toll)
9. Great Plague of London: 1665-1666 (85,000 death toll)
10. Great Plague of Marseille: 1720-1723 (100,000 death toll)
11. Russian plague: 1770-1772 (125 millon death toll)
12. Flu pandemic: 1889-1890 (1 millon death toll)
13. Polio epidemic: 1916 (6,000 death toll)
14. Spanish flu: 1918-1920 (two waves, between 30 to 50 millon death toll)
15. Asian flu: 1957-1958 (1 million death toll)
16. H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic: 2009-20 (18,000 death toll)
17. West African Ebola epidemic: 2014-2016 (28,616 death toll)
If you enjoyed this, please consider reading Leading Exponential Change to face the coming world crisis.
Thanks for listening,
Erich.