I was born in 1979. At primary in 1991, we were sat down and told about the then Gulf War, and that we had nothing to fear from it; I suppose it was in case any of us heard "do you know there's a war on?". Some of us had recently read Goodnight Mister Tom. The thing that scared me most about war was not being killed, it was... wait for it... EVACUATION.
@PatriciaHolm That's the first time I've seen the legendary "coughs and sneezes spread diseases" mentioned since March. It's also interesting that the word "disease" hasn't been used much; it's all "the virus" or "Covid".
I think I taught myself to disbelieve "scary warnings" at a young age. One example is that as a child, I was given the sage advice that if I wore shoes without socks, terrible things would happen, such as my toes falling off, or the shoes walking away without me. As soon as I realised this wasn't true, I went sockless frequently, to make a point; and nothing terrible happened, not even blisters. (We were also made to go sockless at primary school, walking from the classroom to the assembly hall for PE.) Has anyone noticed how with adverts for trainers nowadays, whoever is modelling them frequently appears to be sockless, even if they are probably wearing invisible socks? If I'd believed the earlier advice, I'd now be cowering, saying "don't they know their toes will fall off?".
I think I formed my own risk assessments at a young age, and realised that adults say "scary mind control" things all the time, which is why I've very sceptical of the rubbish from Boris's mouth. Give the man a muzzle, if muzzles are the holy grail of beating the virus!