Only if you believe those drafting that opinion actually lived through polio, smallpox, and the Spanish flu. Otherwise, yes, it was absolutely abstract to them

Only if you believe those drafting that opinion actually lived through polio, smallpox, and the Spanish flu. Otherwise, yes, it was absolutely abstract to them. Just because you're dealing with a real event or real data doesn't mean you're not dealing with it in the abstract. Humans react very differently when they're just thinking about something real hard and when they actually experience the thing directly.