New York City had its fair share of health crises in the past, from the yellow fever in 1798 to the cholera outbreak in 1832, typhoid fever in the early 1900s, H1N1 flu outbreak in 1918, and now the COVID-19.
The 1918 influenza pandemic was considered the most severe pandemic in history, infecting 500,000 people or about one-third of that time's world population. Among those infected people, 675,000 were from the United States.
With the new pandemic spreading across the world, a new study suggests that COVID-19 is likely deadlier in New York than the 1918 pandemic flu. The researchers were able to come up with this conclusion after evaluating the numbers from New York City during the first two months of both pandemics.
According to their study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open on August 13, the relative increase in New York City deaths during the first two months of COVID-19 was substantially higher than during the peak of the 1918 H1N1, this after accounting for the historic change in public hygiene and medical care.
The Statue of Liberty is pictured as New York enters Phase 4 of reopening following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S.
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COVID-19 hit New Yorkers harder compared to the 1918 pandemic
The team headed by Dr. Jeremy Faust of the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed the statistics on New York deaths gathered by the US CDC from 1914 to 1918 and compared it to the data of NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the US Census Bureau data for 2017-2020.
They found that during the peak months of the pandemic in 1918, about 31,600 New Yorkers died, out of the total 5.5 million population. Meanwhile, in 2020, during the peak months of the SARS-CoV-2, the rate was lower, with 33,500 deaths in a population of 8.3 million.
But these numbers do not tell the whole story as the odds of dying in 1918 due to the pandemic is higher compared to 2020.
The researchers said that they factored out "improvements in hygiene and modern achievements in medicine, public health, and safety" for over the past century and found that COVID-19 hit New Yorkers harder than the 1918 pandemic.
They added that modern lifesaving technologies and drugs had saved people from dying.
Lessons to learn during the pandemic
The researchers believe that their findings hold a lesson for Americans, especially when the lockdowns are lifted too soon, as the United States experiences the highest numbers of COVID and deaths in the world.
Faust and his colleagues said that returning to such measures could prevent the exhaustion of essential supplies in the coming weeks.
Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital, said that to reduce the number of deaths in the current pandemic, reinstituting or extending lockdowns should be considered in areas that continue to experience high cases.
Moreover, Dr. Eric Cioe-Pena from the Northwell Health in Great Neck, New York, agreed to Dr. Glatter and said that the study reminds everyone of how bad COVID-19 is and how quickly the virus can kill people.
READ MORE: 50 Days On, 30 Days Off Strategy Could Solve COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis, New Study Suggests
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