http://www.newsweek.com/how-many-americans-died-spanish-flu-pandemic-end-1918-first-world-war-1631104

Deaths related to COVID-19 in the U.S. have reached 676,000, surpassing the number that died during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

Until now, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had considered the influenza epidemic of 1918 to be the worst pandemic in modern history. The virus behind the pandemic was an H1N1 strain of flu originating in birds.