I think another factor is that there wasn't the internet back then. Information about the viruses would've been spreading a lot less rapidly than information ab

I think another factor is that there wasn't the internet back then. Information about the viruses would've been spreading a lot less rapidly than information about covid-19 has been. Overall, I think even at the time people were probably less informed about what was going on (and the global context of it) than we now are.