NYC Coronavirus Deaths Rival 1918 Flu Pandemic: Study

NEW YORK CITY — Don't wave off the new coronavirus as "just the flu." A new study found if COVID-19 is comparable to any flu, it's the 1918 influenza virus that claimed the lives of 50 million people.

More than 33,000 people died in New York City as the coronavirus spread between March and May, the study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open found.

That translated to a death rate roughly four times higher than the same point in 2019, the study found.

"These findings suggest that the mortality associated with COVID-19 during the early phase of the New York City outbreak was comparable to the peak mortality observed during the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic," the study states.

New York City's relative increase in deaths during the first months of coronavirus is actually higher than those at the peak of the 1918 influenza pandemic, according to the study.

But that's likely because more people died from other reasons a century ago, before advances in hygiene and medicine, giving a higher baseline of death in general.

Taking that into account, the study found the absolute increase in deaths during the 1918 flu was greater than the first months of coronavirus — but the two were still comparable.

Long story short, the coronavirus appears to have unleashed a wave of death comparable to one of the worst pandemics in history.