SR as usual you misrepresent the facts. Faced with two major pandemics with ten times the toll of the current virus no one was stupid enough (Or Dumb Dumb, Joe) to suggest closing down the economy. That was left to the current batch of idiots and look at the result!
Alan B, I am in agreement except I would not think rail was the right way to go but it needs some serious attention and we should be up to the challenge. Your ideas are very good but the current idiocy means very little chance of success.
Joe we have faced these viruses before and we have to get the immunity up and suffer casualties. The good news is I would be a prime candidate to die due to age etc. We should have suggested older people stay in to stay safe not stupid lock downs. You are also missing the point that the current stupidity by the medicals will result in many more cancer patients dead, suffering from no elective surgery and many more depression caused suicides. Like the medical profession you can only handle one thing at a time and cannot see the need for a holistic approach. Much like the current ten ambulances lined up at our major hospitals waiting for a bed.
These dolts could not organise a party in a brewery and delight in the Public Service sport of making everything as slow and inefficient as possible. With the usual mantras of "It's a hospital" or even worse "If it saves one life"!

Dear JBowyer,

How on earth did I represent the facts? If they don't fit your narrative it certainly doesn't follow they are being misrepresented.

I think some other history would be helpful. During the 1957 Flu pandemic governments conducted various forms of shutdowns. In the UK the mines and major manufacturing were closed. The Manchester Guardian was running stories titled ‘Setback in Production — “Recession through Influenza”'.

In the US it caused a recession which took place from August 1957 to April 1958, GDP fell 4.1% in Q4 1957, then plummeted another 10% in Q1 1958.

In Australia classes whose teachers fell ill were sent home rather than overcrowding other classes and facilitating the spread.

This was nowhere near the level of today's response but it wasn't inconsequential either.

SR I was actually at school in the UK in 1957 and there was talk of if enough teachers were ill the school would be closed but it was not. In 1968 I was working in an office in central London again no shut down at all and no one ever suggested it either! I was actually there and life carried on as normal albeit with a lot of people being ill.
There were no vaccines for flu until much later so we just sucked it up and life went on.
What about all the elective surgeries and cancer patients delayed and pushed out in the medico's insane rush to hype this up as some sort of holocaust. This has been as I said before a spectacular own goal and the idiot pollies are now realising how much damage they have all caused. The real irony is the usual suspects have all kept their salaries and pensions whilst the rest of us pay and pay and pay.
Mate you are a useless idiot and will never understand real life, give it a rest!

Dear JBowyer,

You claim: “There were no vaccines for flu until much later so we just sucked it up and life went on.”.

I'm sorry but that is not correct.

“The first flu vaccine lots were produced in June, within weeks of Hilleman’s request. Vaccinations started in July. The influenza pandemic hit the U.S. in early September (just as Hilleman predicted). Forty million doses were given over the next three months.”

The UK were only a month behind starting a massive vaccination run directed at the most vulnerable before the peak in late October.