Öz
Since the early 20th century, the world has seen five pandemics caused by respiratory viruses. While the first four of these were caused by flu (Influenza A) viruses, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is due to a coronavirus strain. Now considered a “worst-case scenario” for respiratory viral pandemics, the “Spanish flu” of 1918 afflicted 500 million people and resulted in 40–100 million deaths worldwide. Since December 2019 to date (April 2020), the current COVID-19 has been confirmed in >1.2 million cases and >60 thousand deaths around the globe. A new “coronavirus disease,” with a higher mortality based on the type of the virus (a novel, pandemic SARSr-CoV strain) and host age (>50–60 years), has been identified during this global health crisis, opening a new period in the history of medicine, particularly epidemiology and public health. Furthermore, today, one hundred years after 1918, there is still no effective anti(corona)viral treatment, with its clinical, sociological, psychological, and macroeconomic impacts being already felt around the world and in Turkey, where the first official case was reported on 11 March. Also, there is the worrisome possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic may develop into an even more serious problem in the following weeks, similarly to the 1918 pandemic that occurred in three waves marked by increasingly higher mortality. In this study, we aimed to infer from the experience of the catastrophic 1918 pandemic for the rest of the ongoing COVID-19 calamity, highlight the imminent risks (most notably, viral mutation that could result in higher virulence and mortality), and thus support the calls for social isolation, repeated through various mass media by many global and national health authorities, particularly the Turkish Ministry of Health.