We’ve been here before: Lessons from 1957 & 68
"Why were things so different back then? Was it because we had no fear-reinforcing 24/7 cable news, no Twitter, and no incessant and instant case-and-death tickers on all our electronic screens? Or is it we ourselves who have changed, by valuing recurrent but infrequent risks differently?"
So asks Vaclav Smil in a fascinating post that asks similar questions to ones I have previously raised here but looks at different historical examples. While many have made comparisons between covid and the Spanish flu, why do we barely remember the pandemics of 1957 and 1968 - more deadly than the coronavirus but leaving barely a trace on our collective consciousness. Why is that? What’s changed - what’s changed in us?
Answers on a postcard please!