by SCIAG »
16 Mar 2020 12:30
Fox Talbot EDIT: Perspective: 450,000 UK Citizens died in World War II 1939-1945
Does this figure include combatants? I think it does.
An interesting comparison would be with civilian deaths within the UK - ie victims of bombing, knock-on effects of blackout eg motor accidents, fires etc.
I suspect in terms of civilian deaths we're going to have to go back to 1349 for a bigger number than what's coming. Lower % pop'n, obvs.
Spanish flu killed 228,000 on Britain and 23,000 on Ireland. 250,000 deaths across the UK and Ireland is entirely possible although not guaranteed.
Worth remembering that we live in historically safe times. When smallpox and polio and so forth were all circulating and sanitation was crap and so forth, lots of people died prematurely who wouldn’t today.
There’s a theory I’m inclined to believe that the Black Death was caused by a viral haemorrhagic fever unknown to moderate science (on the basis that the tradition Y. pestis theory has huge holes in it). If that’s true and either it returns or a similar virus develops airborne transmission then every other disease will seem like a hangover.