If Coronavirus happened 25 years ago

Someone asked the question in another thread about it.

Now, having given it some thought, assume we are in 1996. How could we have functioned as a society with Coronavirus? Just a guess by me, and of course, you may have different thoughts.

Technology:
Very few people would have laptops, mobile phones were only just becoming a thing for the average citizen, the internet was very immature, home wifi wasn't a thing and you'd have to use dialup modems to connect to anything online (certainly no pairing through mobile phone to get online).

So, I think:
1. International travel was not such a big thing 25 years ago. I hadn't travelled overseas at that stage, my parents might had had 1 overseas trip involving planes in the prior 15 years. Even interstate travel by air in 1996 was much more rare than it was in 2019. I'd think to fly Sydney - Melbourne airfares were commonly $600 one way till competition came in.
So, reduced mobility --> virus slower to spread worldwide, and gives government more preparation time.

2. I think the government may have used dedicated quarantine facilities for air and sea travellers. I doubt they would have decided to use hotels in the middle of the city to quarantine incoming arrivals.

3. I don't think office workers would have been able to wfh like today. Technology wasn't there to allow the average person to wfh, that's for sure. Maybe 50% of people had mobile phones (rate of mobile phone takeup was rapid at this stage) and the average person would have to pay quite a bit for each mobile phone call - the phone plans are not like today's. So, I think possibly people would minimise usage of mass public transport where possible (staggered work times?) and maybe people at work would try to not interact too close to colleagues. Facemasks and hand sanitizing used.

4. Schools... there was "school of the air" for outback kids but I don't think people would have expanded that to all kids for a 1996 pandemic. Too hard to implement quickly. Facemasks, hand sanitiser and keeping immunocompromised kids out of school might be how we would had managed it.

5. I'd imagine non essential retail and live entertainment and eat in dining would have closed in an outbreak. Instead of widespread purchase by website, you might have seen businesses take orders by phone or email and sell that way. I think eBay evolved around this time, but most retailers didn't have ecommerce as a thing just yet. I think the video store would have possibly been allowed to trade - cause how else are people going to be entertained at home - TV show choices are limited, internet is limited...

6. Organised community sports would have been paused. Everybody would take up pushbiking as a hobby as like today

7. There would be no vaccine. It could not be created so quickly. Thus, loads of people in cramped conditions die. Like today, hospitals get to the point where they are overwhelmed in some locations and quite possibly field hospitals needed to treat the sick. If they have the choice, people flee cities to live in places of lower population density, at least till the crisis is over. Regional property booms. 2 weeks home quarantine needed for anybody doing this. Like today, not everybody obeys. Borders closed between states because the voters largely support this. Causes chaos to border towns like today.

8. Government support of individuals and businesses - I think the Government wouldn't have supported to the extent they do today. Maybe some one off payments would be made, but I think maybe its largely a case of sink or swim.... so people live on credit cards and/or take out bank loans at high interest rates to survive. More welfare in the way of basic food essentials provided by organisations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Maybe more people simply end up on the dole, and the dole doesn't get increased.

9. Mental health - not really recognised/acknowledged to the extent of today. People just deal with it themselves, and not always well. More drinking and domestic violence probably.

 

10. You wouldn’t have stupid people being able to easily sprout on social media that vaccines are all about 5G, and that if you get the jab you will grow 4 heads and die

 

Haha. Definitely true!!

 

At lot more people would die - but we wouldn't know about it

 

And 25 years ago, there wouldn't be websites that the average person on the street can post their thoughts on.... which gives uninformed people a huge platform to use to the detriment of others. There is good and bad, and many cannot filter out what is what.

 

I think Australia was far more racist than it is today. The only time we ever saw anyone wearing a facemask was on the TV as reporters discussed the worst of the air pollution in Asia. I doubt too many Anglos in those days would take kindly to wearing something that only Asians wear. We possibly accept them more readily today after we were conditioned to seeing people wear them during the bird-flu and swine-flu pandemics.

 

12, we would have seen it on the news, but it would be something happening oversea's
13, spread would have been limited due to people not being so mobile
14, if your community/township did have an outbreak most everyone would have done the right thing

 

Disagree with 14

Most today are doing what government is asking

Fines are in place etc.

We would have seen far more vaccinated if government managed vacc roll out, quality of information and stock availability.

 

Not compared to 25 years ago.
Younger people/teens were more worried about dad finding out than the police !
Fines were more proportionate back then.
There wasn't supply constraints on vaccines back then, we got supplies when it was our turn (banging on today about it being a stuff up is BS ! No amount of money seem's to be moving us up the queue).

 

Are you referring to the original issue of what would have occurred 25 years ago or shifting the situation to now?

If now you can also throw in those who decided to salivate on FB or sites promulgating misinformation and conveying it to others as if it were fact rather than obtaining obtaining correct information from validated sources.

 

It would have taken years for any vaccine to be developed, tested and rolled out 25 years ago. I think we just would have seen a lot of deaths (like HIV/AIDs in the early days) and migration out to country towns so people could be free/more safe.

 

I am not on FB…..

 

Yes, the tech to develop a vaccine wasn't there, but we wouldn't have seen the world wide spread (and possibly not the evolution of the Alpha strain) happen as quickly because as per 1, travel was limited.

15, you rarely moved far from family
So were closer to help out, and should the worst happen were nearby to say your goodbye's.

 

A great idea for a movie. Maybe you should write a script.

 

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" - Alexander Pope

 

it cuts both ways.

People can post anything that feeds their bias.

Even respected medical journals have been caught with their pants down.

Today We can even google our medical symptoms, who needs a doctor… Its crazy

This is the world we live in today.

I dare say 25 years ago people would probably only take advice from their doctor.

I am not on FB. Even my children dont touch it, thankfully

 

Relevant comment. The rest..........

 

I wonder if having a smaller population at that time would also have had some impact as well.

 

Was it?

Bali was already a thing, most people had done Europe or the US, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji & exotic locations were the flavour of the month. If anything, it would have spread quicker, more deadly etc.

Plenty of OS students, Hong Kongers getting permanent residency etc.