How does coronavirus compare to other pandemics?

This position holds that Covid-19 is the worst pandemic in history. It argues that no previous outbreak has had so devastating a global effect, in part because modern globalisation and travel spread the disease around the world faster and more widely than ever before.

This position holds that the Spanish Influenza was the worst pandemic in history. It points to the staggering death toll of the outbreak that followed the First World War, its unusual lethality among otherwise healthy young people, and the way wartime conditions accelerated its spread.

This position holds that the bubonic plague was the worst pandemic in history. It argues the plague killed more people than any other outbreak, devastating medieval populations—and notes that, at the time, many even believed the disease to be a punishment sent from God.

This position holds that HIV/AIDS is the worst pandemic in history. It argues that governments' refusal to acknowledge the crisis and act allowed infection rates to soar, and that homophobia helped perpetuate the disease, ultimately costing millions of lives.

This position holds that smallpox is the worst pandemic in history. It argues the disease was devastating for centuries—decimating the Native American population after European contact—before becoming, to date, the only human disease ever fully eradicated.

This position holds that the Plague of Justinian was the worst pandemic in history. One of the earliest recorded, it argues the sixth-century outbreak killed 30–50 million people—the highest proportion of any pandemic—and helped bring about the fall of the Roman Empire.