Interesting to ponder what would have happened if there was a pandemic in 1990, when the only 2 way communication for most people was the phone. The mane feature was the economy being less centralized, so there would have been a lot more adaptation than there is now. The internet would have expanded a lot sooner than it did. More people would have changed careers.

There would have been a rapid uptake of home computers & networking gear. The cost would have been covered by not having to commute. BBS's by 1985 were a viable way to remotely do most of what an office does now, but a family would have needed additional phone lines. Most people could afford a 2400 baud modem.

If it happened from 1940-1985, we would have been expending a lot of effort to work outside. Before 1940, we were manely farmers, sparsely separated families working on their own land, so anything less than a plague didn't impact the economy as severely.

All this media coverage of schools has been a foreign concept only relevant to women of fertility age who told lions to get lost for their 1st 40 years & men who prioritized finances over fitness.

30 years ago, there wasn’t much reason to attend class by highschool except for 1 science class, maybe a public speaking class. Music & art classes had already been defunded out of existence. We could have easily done without PE classes or just made it a requirement to walk a few miles for homework.

Classes which required attendance would definitely have been moved outside. The fields would have been converted to classrooms & we might have had some off campus. Classes which could be done remotely would have become pure homework.