Four days left.  2020 is about to end.  It was a year of opening in the corona and closing in the corona.  It was exactly 100 years ago that I fell into a pandemic due to the Spanish flu.  The population at that time was about 2 billion, and it is estimated that one-fifth of them, 500 million, were infected and 100 million of them died.  Currently, the world population is 7.7 billion, the number of people infected with coronavirus is 80 million, and the number of deaths is 17.5 million. Therefore, the number of infected people and the number of deaths are roughly calculated to be one-fifth of those at the time of the Spanish flu. All conditions will be different from those days, but the infection is likely to spread.  Looking at the pictures of the rice cake making scenery as a child, although I was poor, the joy of welcoming the New Year revives.

残るところあと四日。2020年も幕を閉じようとしています。コロナに開けコロナで閉じる一年でした。スペイン風邪でパンデミックに陥ったのがちょうど100年前。当時の人口がおよそ２０億人で、その五分の一の５億人が感染し、その内の１億人が死亡したと推測されています。現在、世界人口は７７億人、コロナウイルス感染者数８千万人、死亡者数1,750万人と言うことですから、感染者数と死亡者数はざっと計算して、スペイン風邪当時の五分の一ということになります。当時とはあらゆる条件が違うでしょうが、まだまだ感染が広がりそうです。子供の頃の餅つき風景の写真を見ながら、貧しかったけれども、新年を迎える喜びが蘇ってきます。