If this virus had hit in 1990, the baby boomer population would be 30 years younger. As I understand it, the baby boomer population outnumbered the surviving members of the earlier generation by a significant margin, so this would mean a smaller population of the significantly vulnerable.
Also, the memories of the good things vaccines can do would be 30 years fresher. Around here, that same baby boomer generation is lining up for the vaccine with little prompting, while there is expectation that the next generation down, which doesn't remember Polio as more than a chapter in their Junior High History books, is more likely to balk. Especially with such figures as Playmate of the Month Jenny McCarthy beating the drum that vaccines are bad. I get the impression that some have lumped vaccines in with GMO's, plastic hormone analogues in the water, and the eating of red meat rather than tofu and kale.
Economies were at least a BIT more locally independent 30 years ago, which might mean that closing borders and turning inward might have been more of an option. I don't think it would have mattered, however, as the virus got out of its cage before anyone knew the virus was a new thing.
PPE wasn't so single-use 30 years ago. The shortage of such equipment would have taken longer to feel as hospitals kept steam-laundering their existing equipment. Also, JIT manufacturing and stocking wasn't as prevalent, with stores often having decent sized stockrooms.
More people lived in rural areas, which would mitigate for the spread of the disease.
On the flip-side, a lot of the things that COVID makes worse, are also things we've gotten better at treating in the last 30 years. We'd probably have had a lot more death by "heart attack", listed as such with no further investigation, had this happened 30 years ago.
Then there is our expanding waistline, which doesn't help.
And then there is the absence of Amazon to consider. Although we did have Sears and Roebuck, it just wouldn't have been as fast.
All in all, I think you're right that it would have been worse had we faced this 30 years ago, but I don't know how worse, as there are these other factors to moderate the effects.
On to South Korea. While it is a democracy now, it wasn't in living memory. I believe the habits of following orders without question, because that's the way you were raised, are easier to fall back into for them. It may also be a case where the government, if it is as superior in appearance as you say, is closer to the people, socially, inhibiting skepticism of government, but that would be the same effect generated for essentially the opposite reason. It may also be a mixture. A generally obedient population, a carryover from the time when it wasn't a democracy, who feel like their leaders are their neighbors and so are more trustworthy.
As an aside, I'm awaiting the day that Bayer buys Kaspersky, and Astrazenaca nabs Norton. Blue goo, here we go.
Also, the memories of the good things vaccines can do would be 30 years fresher. Around here, that same baby boomer generation is lining up for the vaccine with little prompting, while there is expectation that the next generation down, which doesn't remember Polio as more than a chapter in their Junior High History books, is more likely to balk. Especially with such figures as Playmate of the Month Jenny McCarthy beating the drum that vaccines are bad. I get the impression that some have lumped vaccines in with GMO's, plastic hormone analogues in the water, and the eating of red meat rather than tofu and kale.
Economies were at least a BIT more locally independent 30 years ago, which might mean that closing borders and turning inward might have been more of an option. I don't think it would have mattered, however, as the virus got out of its cage before anyone knew the virus was a new thing.
PPE wasn't so single-use 30 years ago. The shortage of such equipment would have taken longer to feel as hospitals kept steam-laundering their existing equipment. Also, JIT manufacturing and stocking wasn't as prevalent, with stores often having decent sized stockrooms.
More people lived in rural areas, which would mitigate for the spread of the disease.
On the flip-side, a lot of the things that COVID makes worse, are also things we've gotten better at treating in the last 30 years. We'd probably have had a lot more death by "heart attack", listed as such with no further investigation, had this happened 30 years ago.
Then there is our expanding waistline, which doesn't help.
And then there is the absence of Amazon to consider. Although we did have Sears and Roebuck, it just wouldn't have been as fast.
All in all, I think you're right that it would have been worse had we faced this 30 years ago, but I don't know how worse, as there are these other factors to moderate the effects.
On to South Korea. While it is a democracy now, it wasn't in living memory. I believe the habits of following orders without question, because that's the way you were raised, are easier to fall back into for them. It may also be a case where the government, if it is as superior in appearance as you say, is closer to the people, socially, inhibiting skepticism of government, but that would be the same effect generated for essentially the opposite reason. It may also be a mixture. A generally obedient population, a carryover from the time when it wasn't a democracy, who feel like their leaders are their neighbors and so are more trustworthy.
As an aside, I'm awaiting the day that Bayer buys Kaspersky, and Astrazenaca nabs Norton. Blue goo, here we go.