80,000 Americans died of the Flu last year.

That's more Americans who died in the Vietnam War.

Shoot, that's also more Americans than did in the Korean War.

It's approximately 1/5th of the number of Americans who died last year from heart disease.

For that matter, it's about 1/5th of the number of Americans who have died from AIDS. . . total.*

It's about 2.5 times the number of people who died from "gun violence" of all types last year, although to be fair, there's no such thing as "gun violence" in the first place, only violence.    For that matter, it's probably actually more like 7 times the number of people who are murdered by people who use firearms to commit the murder, which is another figure yet.  That means that about 2/3s of those who are killed in which a firearms is involved are suicides.

That also means that its over 4 times the number of people who are murdered in the United States every year.

Did you know that?

Probably not.  It's simply not discussed much.  The Flu has no demographic that advances it as a public health crisis and there are no celebrities that associate themselves with it.

It just goes out and really kills, and only those who know the dead seem to care.


*Which means that the number of Americans who die each year from heart disease is roughly equal to the total number of people who have died from aids.