Originally posted by storch
The 1918 influenza epidemic killed more people that year that all of the casualties suffered in WWI. It decimated the planet and not just the very young, elderly or infirmed either.
If an entity wanted to wipe out the population of an entire continent with a viral epidemic it would need to quarantine the subject continent first. Given the nature of modern travel the epidemic would be global rather quickly. The nobel laureate is a pinhead.
As I recall, it was about flu's death count nowadays, not in 1918 and the past century.
At least thats the way it was said..
"actually, the Flu kill more people than aids does" -> 'kill', not 'killed'.
Of course a such flu could resurface some day again, but so far not during the existance of AIDS.