eli5 What are the ways people in the 20th century survived the Spanish flu compared to what we experienced in 2020?
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I like to often point out that they regulated indoor air quality in many places, notably New York, where it became standard for new constructions to have windows, space between buildings for windows to get fresh air, and radiators in front of said windows so people could have them open for the entire year. There were also some pretty interesting enormous ventilation systems for places like theaters that were built in that period, with fresh air outlets under every seat.
I point it out since we failed and are continuing to fail to do that in the modern era, even though we have better science to understand airborne transmission than they did then, that we can do it with fewer resources or need for construction installation (they didn’t have hepa filters or high efficiency respirators back then), and that the stakes have not actually gone down since 2020 (covid can cause permanent disabling chronic illness in all people, including vaccinated people who are healthy and young, and is more likely to do so with each reinfection). It’s one of those situations where it would be great to learn from the past.
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