Covid-19 in 1970 - a thought-experiment

[Steve H]

How would we have coped if this had happened 50 years ago? much less opportunity to work from home, being pre-personal computers, let alone the internet; medical science much less advanced, so getting a vaccine might have taken longer; on the other hand, it might not have spread as far or as fast, there being much less international travel. In America, Nixon would have been in charge: he was a rat-bag, but not an idiot, unlike the orange clown, so would probably have done a better job. Here, the general election might have been postponed, so Wilson would remain in charge: again, probably better than Bojo.
Any other thoughts?

[Roses]

As I said elsewhere, Wilson wasn't one of the better PMs, imo, I doubt he would have done any better than Boris. As for Nixon, even he would have done a much better job than Trump. Trump is more concerned about protecting his own interests than the good of his country.

[bluehillside Retd]

HGT,

How would we have coped if this had happened 50 years ago? much less opportunity to work from home, being pre-personal computers, let alone the internet; medical science much less advanced, so getting a vaccine might have taken longer; on the other hand, it might not have spread as far or as fast, there being much less international travel. In America, Nixon would have been in charge: he was a rat-bag, but not an idiot, unlike the orange clown, so would probably have done a better job. Here, the general election might have been postponed, so Wilson would remain in charge: again, probably better than Bojo.
Any other thoughts?

You only have to go back another 50 years for some clues:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

[Gordon]

The most obvious difference, I'd have thought, would be the absence of the internet and all that flows from that, which would place exclusive reliance on the print media and broadcasting for information and instruction. That possibly would allow greater scope for information management, or censorship depending on your point of view, since there would be fewer sources of raw information and fewer opportunities for public debate (such as here).

That sounds not dissimilar to what happened in WW2, but without the telly - careless talk costs lives you know!