Running head: SPANISH VS COVID 1

Spanish Flu vs. COVID-19

Aria A Wellington

September 09, 2021

Community Health – Thomas

Youngstown State University

SPANISH VS COVID 2

Spanish Flu vs. COVID-19

When talking about pandemics it is defined as something being prevalent over a whole

country or the world, in this case it is a disease that is talked about. Two of the pandemics out of

many that have occurred are the Spanish Flu and COVID-19. These two diseases are similar in

how they are both viruses, had very low survival rates, and the precautions put in place, but they

are also different in some ways as well.

Spanish Flu

In the spring of 1918, the first wave of the Spanish Flu appeared in Kansas after military

men and women were showing signs and symptoms of illness, some being headache, fever and

cough. The second wave happened in an Army Camp in Boston in fall of 1918. This wave was

more fatal than the first, and lead to a decrease in nurses and medical personnel. The third and

final wave was in the winter, spring, and followed into the summer of the same year. This virus

was thought to be caused by birds and humans were infected by the transmission of birds to pigs

as a middle receptor and then to humans (COVID-19 vs Spanish Flu - Colorado Pain Care,

2021). The name Spanish Flu came about by the Spanish coming out as the first to acknowledge

the disease and its expanding.

This pandemic took millions of deaths across the globe, about 2-3% of the total population. Most

deaths occurred in the second and third wave of the disease. The majority of deaths were younger

people. The manifestations were very simple, cough, sore throat, fever, and muscle pain,

however only lasted a few days. The Spanish Flu became to show signs of respiratory problems
SPANISH VS COVID 3

such as having a hard time breathing and low oxygen levels. These symptoms lasted up to 10

days with death occurring within 2 weeks of onset. Transmission of this disease from human to

human was through respiratory droplets. with no previous knowledge on this disease many

medical interventions were not able to be used. To control this from widening into a larger issue

people worldwide were put into isolation and quarantined, taught about good hygiene and using

disinfectants, and limiting the amount of people at public gatherings and minimized the amount

of event that could happen. In the summer of 1919, the pandemic came to an end and who was

infected either died or developed immunity (History of 1918 Flu Pandemic | Pandemic Influenza

(Flu) | CDC, 2021).

COVID-19

A hundred years after the Spanish Flu disappeared a new virus, SARS-CoV-2 caused a

pandemic. In the winter of 2019, China had an outbreak of unexplained pneumonia cases. On

January of 2020 the World Health Organization [WHO] declared an epidemic as a great concern.

The epidemic soon became a pandemic due to the advance of it spreading so rapidly. This

disease was considered to be given to humans by bats, but we still have no idea for a

intermediate host (COVID-19 vs Spanish Flu - Colorado Pain Care, 2021).

In China 571 positive coronavirus cases were reported and had a death toll of 17. According to

WHO, by May of 2020, there were about 3.7 million positive cases and about 2.3 deaths. This

disease could present with symptoms or patients could be asymptomatic, without symptoms. It

presented with fever, dry cough, sore throat, and headache and fatigue. This disease could be

classified as mild/asymptomatic, with manifestations of cough, sore throat, headache, and

fatigue, next it could be moderate with manifestations of shortness of breath and tachypnea.
SPANISH VS COVID 4

Many people do not stay in this stage for very long. Severe is the next severity which is

manifested by respiratory distress, breathlessness, and respiratory rate of more than 30, and

oxygen decreases. The highest phase is critical, and patients experience acute respiratory distress.

This is transmitted through respiratory droplets as well. When this pandemic occurred originally

people had no clue how to handle it, so from previous knowledge the globe was put into non-

pharmaceutical interventions once again. People were isolated, quarantined, mandated to wear

masks in public, taught about the importance of hygiene and use of disinfectants, as well as

limiting events and gatherings. This pandemic is still underway and has been in very many levels

of severity throughout its time of being here (Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – 2021).

Conclusion

The Spanish flu and COVID-19 pandemic seem to be very similar, and both have very

negative impacts on the world. They both had the non therapeutic interventions such as isolation,

quarantine, wearing masks, and teaching others how to use hygiene products and wash their

hands more often. One big difference that I noticed was the mortality of each. COVID killed

around one in five people who caught the virus out of 328.2 million people in the United States,

however the Spanish Flu killed 50 million out of the 103.2 million people that they had. COVID

was more prevalent in 65+ older ages, where the Spanish Flu was in the more middle age people

that were getting infected. Overall, these two pandemics have had very big impacts on the world

and in the end are two different pandemics that have two very different outcomes.
SPANISH VS COVID 5

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) –
Symptoms. [online] Available at:
<https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html>
[Accessed 14 September 2021].

Colorado Pain Care. 2021. COVID-19 vs Spanish Flu - Colorado Pain Care. [online] Available
at: <https://coloradopaincare.com/covid-19-vs-spanish-flu/> [Accessed 14 September
2021].

Cdc.gov. 2021. History of 1918 Flu Pandemic | Pandemic Influenza (Flu) | CDC. [online]
Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-
pandemic-history.htm> [Accessed 14 September 2021].