COVID-19 shows we're more risk averse than post-World War II Americans

Do you remember the 1957-58 Asian flu? Or the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu? I do. I was a teenager during the former, an adult finishing law school during the latter. And I followed the news much more than the average person my age, yet I cannot dredge up more than the dimmest memory of either of those epidemics.

I don’t have any memory of schools closing, though apparently a few did here and there. I have no memories of city or state lockdowns, of closed offices and factories and department stores, of people banned from parks and beaches.