In fact, the vast majority of the people who contracted the 1918 flu survived. National death rates among the infected generally did not exceed 20%.
However, death rates varied among different groups. In the U.S., deaths were particularly high among Native American populations, perhaps due to lower rates of exposure to past strains of influenza. In some cases, entire Native communities were wiped out.
Of course, even a 20% death rate vastly exceeds a typical flu, which kills less than 1% of those infected.
This Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, photo shows a memorial to victims of the Spanish flu at the Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vt. Brian Zecchinelli installed the monument to commemorate his grandfather, killed when the flu swept the state in the fall of 1918. It is estimated the flu killed 50 million people worldwide. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)
