WI: COVID-19 appears earlier.

[brucejoel99]

Suppose the coronavirus as we know it appears in Wuhan (& spreads from there) at some other point in time between the end of the 1918 flu pandemic & late 2019. How would things be different?

This post is more of an thought exercise than anything else, so you're welcome to pick any potential time period to discuss. For instance (though this is just an example): what if the coronavirus broke out in 1960, right smack in the middle of the Great Leap Forward & before the Sino-Soviet Split? Or if it takes place in the run-up to any given prominent past election (e.g., 1948, 1960, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2016), how would politics & the results of said election potentially be changed?

[darklordoftech]

Any time before the internet, or even in the days of low-speed internet that tied up the phone line, would be interesting. No internet would mean no Zoom or anything like that.

[Samof94]

How would Sars 1 being Covid 19 work for an Early Internet one and potentially affecting Bush/Kerry if timed right?? The aughts is a good decade to use as it is rather modern-ish but isn’t current.