During the 1918 influenza pandemic, mortality rates for pneumonia were 50% in sanitariums and Army hospitals due to the absence of penicillin.

“once you hit pneumonia there was no difference between what the sanitariums were doing and the Army hospitals the mortality was 50% remember this is prior to penicillin this is 1918 this is before 1928 when we discovered penicillin so once you hit pneumonia it was really difficult to treat”