Per Capita Deaths Were Higher in 1968 and 1957 US Flu Epidemics, and Everything Was Normal, Including Woodstock

Update; May 2, 2021 –

Although it is frequently compared in the media to the Spanish Flu of 1918, in global deaths per capita it is nowhere near, and more similar to the 1957 and 1968 flu pandemics, which few in the general population even knew about and never prompted talk of masks or lockkdowns.

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In per capita global terms, COVID not as severe as past pandemics, which went largely unnoticed, never mention of masks or “lockdowns.”

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In 1957 and 1968, the US experienced two pandemics which claimed more lives per capita, also of mostly elderly and immune compromised people, than the present declared coronavirus pandemic.   The viruses involved in these pandemics also had higher case mortality rates than the present revised estimate for COVID.

During the 1957 and 1968 pandemics, life went on as normal for the vast majority of the population.

Critics of the present approach, such as epidemiologist Dr. Knut Wittkowski, argue that social distancing measures such as closing schools delays the process of herd immunity, and allows the virus time to mutate into more deadly strains, making social distancing wildly counter-productive.

When figures from the database Worldometer are compared, it can be seen that there is little correlation between per capita deaths in a country and lockdown status, or lack of it.

During the 1957 and 1968 pandemics, not only was “social distancing” not a topic.   Just months after the close of the 1968 – 1969 flu season, people flocked to one of the largest mass gatherings in US history, Woodstock.