After Spanish flu – recession then prosperity

The Spanish flu epidemic is the one most often mentioned as a comparison for Covid-19. Though the present death rate of just over one million is a blip against the 50 million plus who died of the flu in four waves between 1918 to 1920. The second wave was the deadliest though again that doesn’t look to be the case now as treatments are improving. What exacerbated the spread of the influenza back then were troops returning from World War One.   The Spanish flu took hold in March 1