Deadliest year in US history

Are we learning from history?

U.s. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time ?

# due largely to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kimt news 3's maleeha kamal spoke with a historian and public health director about the significance of that grim data.

I'm here at st mary's hospital.

And right now doctors here are fighting to save the lives of people battling the coronavirus.

But sadly thousands of americans have already died due to the virus as of now it is projected that 3 point 2 million american will die this year largely due to the pandemic.

U.s. deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected.

But the 2020 numbers amount to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths from this month are counted.

Perhaps the deadliest year up until now was 1918.

History professor james ford calls the data staggering.

"1918 with a war and the spanish flu yet despite those two events in that year 2020 has manage to become the year were more americans have died.

Thats really saying something.now we have to calculate into that.

The population of the united states have risen significantly since then."

Ford says the numbers indicate we have not learned from our past mistakes.

"so some of the things we have seen over the year with covid in terms of governments response or how it has impacted our governement culture are some ways similar to the way past societies have dealth with pandemics.

Sue yost is the department of public health director in freeborn county..

She says we still have a lot to learn.

"we are definitely learning how to tackle viruses because now there is medications we have the tenchology to develop medications we have the technology to roughly 670?

"* thousand americans died from the spanish flu.

So far about three hundred thousand americans have died from covid?

"*19.