105-Year-Old Woman Survived 1918 Flu which killed 50M ppl, Dies of COVID
Primetta Giacopini, a 105-year-old Italian woman who lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide, died of COVID-19. "I believe my mother would have lived a lot longer" if she hadn't been infected with the coronavirus, according to Giacopini's daughter Dorene Giacopini. "She was a fighter in every sense of the word. She had a difficult upbringing, and her opinion was always that... basically, all Americans who were not alive during WWII were spoiled brats."
In Connecticut, Giacopini's mother died of the 1918 flu. Giacopini was two years old at the time. According to the National Archive, the 1918 flu killed 50 million people, or around one-fifth of the world's population at the time. In the united states, nearly a quarter of the population was infected with the virus. In that year, the average life expectancy in the united states declined by 12 years.
According to the Associated Press, Giacopini also survived WWII. In 1941, while brutal dictator Benito Mussolini was in power, she fled Italy. When italy joined the war in 1940, the police warned Giacopini that she may end up in a prison camp if she stayed in the country.
According to the Associated Press, she escaped with a bunch of strangers on a train to Portugal. She then moved to the united states and gave birth to Dorene in 1960.
According to the Associated Press, she escaped with a bunch of strangers on a train to Portugal. She then moved to the united states and gave birth to Dorene in 1960.