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Original poster

If this had happened 40-50 years ago...

559 replies

Swissrollypoly · 28/12/2020 23:03

Do you think things would be different? Do you think we’d just have to get on with things as we wouldn’t have the means to work from home or communicate via Zoom or Microsoft teams etc.
Social media didn’t exist, so there wouldn’t be as much panic and scaremongering.
I just wonder how different it would all be, had it happened in another time period.

OP posts:
CatAndHisKit · 29/12/2020 01:09

We are heading towards that total of deaths WITH lockdown and modern treatments

Not quite as the population was considerably smaller than, so propertionately covid deaths aer lower (so far). And vaccine already here, plus better treatment, so unlikely to rise enough now from that number to equal the 1950s deaths total.

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:10

@thatonesmine

I was 12 years old in 1968 so old enough to be aware of what was going on and I remember almost nothing about the flu pandemic, the occasional mention maybe but there definitely wasn't anything like the blanket coverage and general hysteria we're seeing now. I know we have social media, 24 hour news etc now but even so.
True. I'm a smidgen older and I don't remember it either.
CatAndHisKit · 29/12/2020 01:12

proportionately, obvs.

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:12

@Sittinginmyoodie

When were the coal strikes and the three day working week? Everything was probably already shut down anyway in the 1970s because of various strikes.
73/74
MadameBlobby · 29/12/2020 01:14

I think there would have been more deaths but it would just have been accepted as an inevitability

I don’t think we would have had furlough so no compulsory business closures but a lot of businesses and jobs still going to the wall as people chose to stay at home.

More compliance overall with measures as no internet Covidiots

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:15

@Heartlantern2

People didn’t travel and mix like we do now though, that’s the big difference.

Most families only had one car too and rarely went out to eat as a meal out was a treat-not Saturday nights dinner.

Do you think it was the Dark Ages?

I first went abroad in 1959. And every year thereafter. Meals out were a regular occurrence, either cheap and cheerful (Golden Egg, local cafes on a Saturday) or for a nice Sunday lunch.

I lived at home and got my first car in 1973

MercyBooth · 29/12/2020 01:16

There would have been boots on the ground. No reliance on apps.
No expecting elderly people with mobility issues to queue with no seating for tests and vaccines.
No expecting ppl to drive to testing centres when ill.

SwoopingDown · 29/12/2020 01:16

@TransplantedScouser

We’d have cracked on and got on with it

I was about to say even in the 80s it would have gone down as a bad flu / then I realised it was 40 years ago

I’m 44

Social and 24 hour media has a lot to answer for

Yes some young people have died but I general it kills people with an average (mean, median and mode) over 80 - three score years and ten used to be human life expectancy - we’ve pushed the boundaries so I can’t cry over 80 year olds dying

We seem to have a generation of people who think living to 90 and people not dying is a given right - it’s not.I would have hoped this would’ve a reality check but all we’ve done is fuck every one else’s lives

Callous :(
Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:19

@MerinoFroggie

People travelled less 40 to 50 years ago so if covid and 2020 happened back then, I don't think spread would have been as widespread.

Also when my parents were younger and also my grandparents, they had simpler lifes. Eating out was rare and mainly on occasions once or twice a year. Now eating out is done more regularly and that would have contributed to the spread with indoor dining and drinking.

'Simpler lives' for some.

I don't know anyone of my generation that only ate out once or twice a year.

Bear in mind that Wimpeys and cafes were very popular in the 1960s!

So lots of socialising. And there were lots more pubs that would be packed on a Saturday night. (and Sunday lunchtime)

SwedishEdith · 29/12/2020 01:21

*Do you think it was the Dark Ages?

I first went abroad in 1959. And every year thereafter. Meals out were a regular occurrence, either cheap and cheerful (Golden Egg, local cafes on a Saturday) or for a nice Sunday lunch.*

But most people didn't go abroad every year and far fewer people went on short breaks a few times a year.

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:21

Oh yes, and Discos that were packed to the rafters.

Lots of places to spread

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2020 01:23

@SwedishEdith

*Do you think it was the Dark Ages?

I first went abroad in 1959. And every year thereafter. Meals out were a regular occurrence, either cheap and cheerful (Golden Egg, local cafes on a Saturday) or for a nice Sunday lunch.*

But most people didn't go abroad every year and far fewer people went on short breaks a few times a year.

They did by the 70s

It wasn't that expensive to go abroad then. Club 18-30 started in the late 60s so don't think everyone was heading off to Blackpool and Clacton

ktp100 · 29/12/2020 01:24

It would have been over by now. Back then people were capable of making sacrifices for the greater good.

Too many selfish arseholes now, put a shit ton of thickos who get their (mis)information from social media.

TheCrowsHaveEyes · 29/12/2020 01:28

@Nanny0gg you may have done those things but the majority of the working class didn't. There wasn't the disposable income. The cheap airlines didn't exist. It wasn't until the 1980s that there was a growth in travel agents on the high street and in package holidays.
Growing up in the 1970s/1980s, hardly anyone in my school had been abroad. Nowadays, nearly everyone has.
I don't think anyone is arguing that people with income didn't travel abroad. They always have. But working class people didn't. Low income families didn't. Nowadays working class people and low income families are likely to have holidayed abroad.

SwedishEdith · 29/12/2020 01:31

*They did by the 70s

It wasn't that expensive to go abroad then. Club 18-30 started in the late 60s so don't think everyone was heading off to Blackpool and Clacton*

Some did but nowhere near the numbers that do now. And they went for one 2 week trip per year. Now more people go for a few short breaks per year. I went abroad for the first time in the early 70s. We were considered unusual and a bit "posh" (we weren't, camping in France). School friends went to Butlins/Pontins or Wales, generally. More people travel more frequently than they did in the 60s and 70s.

SwoopingDown · 29/12/2020 01:33

@ktp100

It would have been over by now. Back then people were capable of making sacrifices for the greater good.

Too many selfish arseholes now, put a shit ton of thickos who get their (mis)information from social media.

Good point. And probably more trusting of the government in the 60s and 70s too.
NannyGythaOgg · 29/12/2020 01:34

We did
1968 we just got on with it but een 2 years ago - because it was 'flu' and not a new and novel virus we had 60,000 excess deaths.

Pandemics happen reletaively infrequently but they happen and we just got on with it.

The Spanish flu was different - but we got over it - and life carried on. (Serious infection was around 25% so a totally different scale - and it hit young people which this doesn't in anything like the same way).
'57 and '68 flu killed many many young people - Covid doesn't.

As well as social media, mainstream media then tried not to cause panic. today mainstream media deliht in cuasing panic.

So NO, in no way, even 10 years ago would there have been anything like this panic

Quaagars · 29/12/2020 01:38

@MerinoFroggie

People travelled less 40 to 50 years ago so if covid and 2020 happened back then, I don't think spread would have been as widespread.

Also when my parents were younger and also my grandparents, they had simpler lifes. Eating out was rare and mainly on occasions once or twice a year. Now eating out is done more regularly and that would have contributed to the spread with indoor dining and drinking.

Probably already said, but 40 years ago was 1980?!

Social media and talking to others online/24 hour news wasn't a thing but going away on holiday abroad and travelling definitely was.
Makes me wonder how young some on here actually are!

Quaagars · 29/12/2020 01:43

I’m 44
we’ve pushed the boundaries so I can’t cry over 80 year olds dying

So am I, that's my grandparents you're talking about though - how hard hearted do you have to be to think in your 80s you're on the scrap heap/past it?!
Fuck.
That.
Sad

CorianderQueen · 29/12/2020 01:44

I don't know, I'm 25, but I feel that in a world where women generally stayed at home things would've been more doable. Now that we're all meant to have a career, we're all being screwed. Mostly women.

CorianderQueen · 29/12/2020 01:47

Also, I am just getting on with it, as are all my friends. Despite pay cuts, furlough, moving back in with family were just moving through it. None of us are catatonic. We're sad at the loss of our 20s but just pushing on.

I think the main issue with this pandemic is the necessity of two parents working while also having kids. So everything is difficult and impossible and dangerous.

We childless 20-30s are bored, sad, but generally fine (that being those without kids and with a stable career).

MercyBooth · 29/12/2020 01:48

When i look at the taped off benches in our shopping centre i remember how people thought you could catch HIV/AIDS from toilet seats cutlery etc back in the 80s. Had there been social media back then i think there absolutely would have been a lockdown.

SwoopingDown · 29/12/2020 01:49

@NannyGythaOgg

We did 1968 we just got on with it but een 2 years ago - because it was 'flu' and not a new and novel virus we had 60,000 excess deaths.

Pandemics happen reletaively infrequently but they happen and we just got on with it.

The Spanish flu was different - but we got over it - and life carried on. (Serious infection was around 25% so a totally different scale - and it hit young people which this doesn't in anything like the same way).
'57 and '68 flu killed many many young people - Covid doesn't.

As well as social media, mainstream media then tried not to cause panic. today mainstream media deliht in cuasing panic.

So NO, in no way, even 10 years ago would there have been anything like this panic

"and life carried on"

As it will in 2021, but hopefully without as many needless deaths.

Unlike the circumstances of the Spanish flu, the government isn't in the position of encouraging people to grin and bear it, they're actually trying to preserve lives.

This is not panic, it is control of a deadly virus.

IfNotNow12 · 29/12/2020 01:50

Working class people did go abroad 40/50 years ago. Lots of people lived in council flats but had decent jobs and could afford to go abroad every year. My Dad used to travel from the North down to London to work quite often. Even older relatives were away in the Forces a lot, and travelled all over the world!
As for women working, well all my older female relatives worked, either in factories or shops. Maybe not as much travelling and working away as now, but none of those things were particularly unusual for completely ordinary people.

SwedishEdith · 29/12/2020 01:54

@Quaagars

I’m 44 we’ve pushed the boundaries so I can’t cry over 80 year olds dying

So am I, that's my grandparents you're talking about though - how hard hearted do you have to be to think in your 80s you're on the scrap heap/past it?!
Fuck.
That.
Sad

Well, quite. A pp says they were born in 1942 so not that far off the "no longer needed" pile as well.