We didn't really understand a whole lot about flus and pandemics back then, and the majority of the world was much poorer, leading to a global response like we'

We didn't really understand a whole lot about flus and pandemics back then, and the majority of the world was much poorer, leading to a global response like we're seeing in Brazil, for instance. Additionally, there was a war on for a bunch of it, which impacted things. Like, I actually think that lockdowns are a reasonable approach as a pandemic control strategy. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff against the potential deaths. Note that this is completely conditional on the existence of a proper social security network, which supports all the people who can't work from home.