Epidemiologists today estimate that influenza likely caused at least fifty million deaths worldwide, and possibly as many as one hundred million.
-- Narrator (Prologue paragraph NA)

Importance: In Barry’s Prologue he illustrates the severity of the flu epidemic in 1918 by quoting estimates that as many as one hundred million people died worldwide as a result of the disease. Because people were dying so quickly doctors could not keep good track of cases, and many people who died from the flu never saw a doctor, there are no firm statistics on the number of people killed.

Indeed, these requirements were so rigorous that Welch and Osler worried that the Hopkins would attract no students.
-- Narrator (Chapter 4 paragraph NA)

Importance: Barry describes in his book the reforms made in medical education in the late 1800s. Johns Hopkins was one of the first schools to require a background in science, a college degree, and fluency in either French or German.

Epidemiological evidence suggests...
-- Narrator (Chapter 6 paragraph NA)