‘Pandemic bookends.’ A second set of siblings dies a century apart from epidemics

A World War II veteran died from COVID-19, a century after his twin brother died during a different pandemic, media outlets report.

Philip Kahn died April 17 from coronavirus at age 100, according to the Associated Press. The Long Island man was afraid of a second pandemic, his family told CNN.

Kahn and his twin brother, Samuel, were born Dec. 5, 1919, as the Spanish Flu continued to spread. His twin brother died weeks later, Kahn’s family told CNN.

“He always had a motto that history will always repeat itself, and he knew that there was a possibility of a pandemic again,” said Warren Zysman, Kahn’s grandson, according to the AP. “The one silver lining is that my grandfather will finally have the opportunity to meet his twin brother after 100 years.”

The twins are “pandemic bookends,” Zysman’s wife, Corey Karlin-Zysman, told The Washington Post.

“Both Philip and his brother were pandemic bookends,” she told CBS New York. “His brother having passed from the Spanish Flu and him regrettably having passed from COVID.”

Kahn served in a World War II Army aerial unit and in the Battle of Iwo Jima, according to The New York Times. He earned two bronze stars and helped build the World Trade Center after the war, the news outlet reported.

The twins aren’t the only siblings who died a century apart in different pandemics.

A 96-year-old Texas woman died from coronavirus, after her older sister died from the Spanish Flu, according to McClatchy News. Selma Esther Ryan died April 14, 102 years after her older sister died, the news outlet reported.

About one-third of the world’s population became infected during the 1918 flu pandemic, according to the CDC. About 50 million people worldwide died during the pandemic, with about 675,000 of those deaths in the U.S.

There were about 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 890,000 of those cases are in the U.S.

This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 7:59 PM with the headline "‘Pandemic bookends.’ A second set of siblings dies a century apart from epidemics."