'Spanish' Influenza pandemic of 1916-1920

The Influenza pandemic that had hit the world in 1916 had infected nearly 500 million people. During the 1910's there were approximately 1.8 billion people alive in the world. The Influenza Virus had affected nearly 1/3 of the entire worlds population. This Influenza Pandemic also cost the lives of nearly 50 million people all over the world. the Influenza virus had a 2.5% kill ratio, so out of every 100 people, an estimated 2 and a half people died, compared to previous years of influenza virus, the general mortality rate had been about 0.1%.
The influenza epidemic occurred during the same time that WW1 was happening, the influenza Virus seemed to attack 20 - 40 year olds the hardest. The virus had affected approximately 28% of all the people in The United States. during the war, about 43,000 troops that had been mobilized and taken to Europe had been killed from the Influenza virus. The Virus had killed 10 times more Americans than the war itself had killed. soldiers died in the thousands in Europe, and the physicians and doctors could do almost nothing for their soldiers and their influenza victims.
There was a massive shortage of doctors in the United states, this is due to the movement of most doctors sent oversees to aid the Europeans fighting the Germans and their own troops. there was hardly any doctors that could do anything to combat the influenza virus. The war was also a massive spreader of the disease and it allowed for the virus to spread all over the world, sick soldiers would come back home and would transmit the virus to their families. There was constant limitations of certain freedoms in the United states, these where most done in order to stop the spread of influenza virus and to not overwhelm the mortuaries and doctors that where drowning in sick and dying people. some of these freedoms were limited use of trains with very limited amount of passengers , 15 minute funerals, mass graves used to bury people, and hundreds of shops/restaurants where closed to in order to lower the possible infections. In other countries bodies where buried in order to keep the dead bodies from infecting others. In india, nearly half of the population died of the virus due to the lack of medication and doctors.

A Rhyme that children would often sing and skip to during the pandemic

  I had a little bird 
its name was enza 
I opened the window, 
and in-flu-enza

In comparison to other viruses and outbreaks:
HIV/AIDS epidemic: >32,000,000 deaths
Third cholera Pandemic in Russia (1852-1860) :1,000,000 deaths

Bubonic Plauge Black Death (1347): 200,000,000 deaths 

Third Plauge Pandemic (1855-1960): 22,000,000 deaths


https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic
https://www.history.com/news/pandemics-end-plague-cholera-black-death-smallpox