Coronavirus: What have been the deadliest pandemics in history? – 20 minutes

Since their appearance in China at the start of 2020, the
Covid-19 and his
variants have killed an estimated 5.5 million people around the world. The whole planet has slowed down in 2020, and since then, many countries are establishing or lifting, according to the waves, health rules. But this is not the first time that humanity has faced a crisis of this type. And looking in the rearview mirror of History, we realize that epidemics have often struck in a much more dramatic way.

As shown in this infographic by our partner Statista, based on data from the Visual Capitalist website, it is the
Plague Black woman who, in the 14th century, did the most damage: 200 million deaths, or half of the estimated world population. Eight centuries earlier, Justinian’s Plague had decimated one in five Earthmen. Smallpox completes this grim podium, with an estimated 56 million deaths in the 16th century. Fortunately, medicine has made giant strides since then, as the rest of the ranking below shows.

You can find more infographics on Statista