Last night, my wife had a text from a co-worker....throwing the suggestion out there and asking...what if Covid had arrived in the 1970s.
It's a very curious suggestion.
First, for the West Germans, there was only Channel One (ARD), Channel Two (ZDF), and in our region.....HR (the Hessen network)....all public TV.
Newspapers and magazines would have been the front-line vehicle to disperse information and chat over the virus.
Leadership? Kiesinger and Erhard were the two Chancellors of the era....neither really known for dynamic authority or leadership.
No internet. No Facebook. No Twitter.
Lightning speed for vaccine development? No....that probably would have taken three years for some development to occur.
It's a curious suggestion and one has to wonder how the West Germans would handled the curfew business, the shutdown of restaurants, bars and pubs, and finally....the mask business.
2 comments:
There was a flu pandemic in 1968 just run a google search for H3N2 virus, and yet we are still here
The 1968 flu in West Germany (and DDR) isn't discussed much. Total deaths between the two countries....around 60k (we have to assume that DDR was honest on their numbers). Curious stories: In Berlin for several weeks, they were temporarily burying the bodies in subway tunnels until they had time to do the 'right' burial. In some areas of West Germany....Garbage collectors were called in to conduct burials because of a shortage of undertakers.
I should add....as spring of 1969 started up...the 'Hong Kong' flu went away.
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