Columnist looks at the numbers from the Spanish Flu

The average number of burials in the two years preceding and the two years following the flu epidemic was 11,337.

Thus the number of deaths was about 40 percent above average in 1918 but only 2.1 percent above average in 1919.

The national rate Was +41 percent and +1.6 percent respectively. These figures also seem comparable.

Dividing the number of burials by the total population of Nebraska yields a crude death rate of 12.5 deaths per 1000 people in 1918 and 8.9 deaths per lOOO in 1919. The average death rate during the four non-flu years was 8.8 per 1000. This suggests out of every 1000 Nebraska residents in 1918, less than four deaths out of every thousand was due to the flu and only one in 10,000 in 1919 . Of course, the death rate was significantly higher for those who actually contracted the flu, but I found no figures on the number of people who contracted the flu but recovered.

The population of Cedar County

was 16,225 in i*?20-- Figures for non-census years were nót found but probably were not much different in 1918 and 1919. The total number of burials in the county was 166 in 1918 and 123 in 1919. The average number of deaths in the four non-flu years was 109. Thus, it seems reasonable to attribute 57 deaths to the flu in 1918 and 14 deaths to the flu in 1919. This would suggest an influenza death rate of 3.5 per 1000 in 1918 and less than one per 1000 in 191.9, Incidentally, the Nebraska State Board of Health reported 60 deaths from the Spanish Flu and its complications in Cedar County in 1918. Thus, the mathematically derived prediction (57) seems comparable