evidence: These results demonstrate how much more deadly the Spanish flu was than COVID-19 has been so far. In particular, in the United States, deaths due to Spanish flu as a percentage of the population were over 13 times higher than deaths due to COVID-19 thus far. In order for COVID-19 to kill the same fraction of the United States population as the Spanish flu did, American COVID-19 deaths would have to rise by over 1.5 million people. [...] Although the Spanish flu and COVID-19 are two different illnesses, and although COVID-19 is still ongoing, these disparities in mortality statistics as a percentage of these countries’ populations are also a testament to how societies have evolved over the past century. In the United States, for example, over the past hundred years, life expectancy has increased more than 40 percent, and per capita real income in the U.S. has increased over 500 percent.REF It is well understood that as societies grow wealthier, they are more capable of adapting to adverse situations.REF Additionally, economic growth has resulted in improvements to medical technology and living conditions among many other factors.REF Many societies are thus much better equipped now to deal with a serious health emergency than in the past.