The Corona Virus Disease-19 pandemic: A Comparison with the 1918 Influenza pandemic

At the time of writing, the Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a raging global pandemic that is wreaking havoc on health systems and economies around the world. Most of the world’s population have been asked the stay indoors to stop the disease transmission. More than 200 countries are affected and already over 2 million people have been confirmed as infected with over 150,000 people succombing to the disease. A similar situation existed during the Influenza virus pandemic over a 100 years ago during which, an estimated one third of the whole human population was infected and 50-100 million people died. Here, I give my perspectives on these two pandemics, highlighting the similarities and differences. I also describe the lacunae that still exist and need further investigation.