If This Virus Had Appeared 40 Years Ago, Before The Internet, Social Media And 24 Hour News, Would We Still Be Where We Are Now?

[dave50]

Or would we have read in the papers that there is a particular virulent strain of the flu going round and we need to be careful.

[ToraToraTora]

well we had Hong Kong flu in 1968, what happened then? I was too young to know much about it but I suspect we just took the obvious precautions and got on with it.

[vulcan42]

I was married in 1968, we had a normal wedding and reception with scores of guests from all over the world. We flew to our honeymoon destination and the only requirement at the airport was to walk over a mat soaked in disinfectant. How times have changed.

[jno]

"before mass international travel" is the bit you missed out.

[woofgang]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31201-0/fulltext

[Bazile]

So the disinfectant thing ,was amongst the mix ,even then

[naomi24]

I think the reaction would have been very different. It would have run its course and the world would have got on with it.

[jno]

you had to walk through disinfectant just to get into Albania in those days, Bazile. (And have your Cosmopolitan magazines confiscated, as I well recall.) But it wasn't taken via injection.

[bhg481]

Bazile - yes, but you walked on it, not drank it.

[Sqad]

I think that someone,somewhere would have cottoned onto the fact that this "new virulent" strain of "flu" was killing off just as many people as the Hong Kong flu,but in half the time and in an exponential way.

[mushroom25]

40 years ago, China was very much more closed than it is today. the virus may not have escaped then as readily as it did this year, and even if it had, the communist party of China probably wouldn't have been as upfront about it.

[jno]

it just wouldn't have travelled round the world anything like as fast, Sqad. What happened in Wuhan stayed in Wuhan for years. And in those days we had competent politicians who would have prepared for it.

[vulcan42]

jno, I'm not sure that's relevant, the world population in 1968 was less than half what it is now.

[Sqad]

Jno...quite.

[jackthehat]

My generation wouldn't have been whinging about missing Fresher's week and bemoaning the opportunity to go out clubbing.
We'd have stayed in watching BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV and singing along to the records on Radio 1 with a little help from Smash Hits!

[jno]

jth, if your generation were at university, they wouldn't have wondered why they (or their parents) were paying for an education they weren't getting.

[jno]

vulcan, that is another facgtor the OP omitted to mention. I'm not sure what effect it would have though. Here in London I'd have been in almost the same position - population not much bigger now, still lots of public transport to catch infections on.

It might have meant more in other countries where supercities had yet to develop. UK population in that time has increased from 55m to 68m or thereabouts, but China's has doubled.

[jackthehat]

jno - That's very true. Although, I have to say that most of the students I have seen interviewed seem to be complaining more about the lockdown curtailing their extra-curricular activities rather than their curricular ones.

However, fewer of my generation went onto Uni 40 years ago so the majority of us would have had to sit at home flicking through My Guy or Jackie..... :o)

[Peter Pedant]

who can tell?
the 1957 outbreak killed how many
amd how many did that compare to war bombing (*)
and the 1952 last great smog? they just shrugged their shoulders ( and brought forth the Clean Air Act)

Smallpox - 1962 the vaccinated everyone didnt they

[Peter Pedant]

aerial bombing - more tons were dropped on Tokyo Mar 1945 than the whole of London during the whole war
180 000 dead and 20 sq mi rased ( Tokyo)
erm actually which is less than American dead 210 000 during covid or this little flu ( thx NJ!)

[Peter Pedant]

// fewer of my generation went onto Uni 40 years ago so the majority...//
basically 5% wasnt it
which is why the govt cd pay full grants...
60% kids were expected to leave skool wivvart enyfing