An Epidemic

As devastating as the war was, the flu epidemic was far worse. Coming on the heels of the war, the 1918-1919 "Spanish Influenza" epidemic killed many more people than the war did, with approximately one out of every three people worldwide affected. The war killed approximately nine to ten million people; the flu took an estimated 20-50 million lives. In Chicago alone, more than 8,500 lives were lost to the disease in just eight weeks. (10)