Mum has told us stories of life as a child during the war, in particular going to school during the blitz of 1940-41 and the later 'doodlebug' flying bomb campaign.  Living in SE London, bombing was a frequent occurrence.  Mum recalled how she and her younger brother Raymond used to walk to school every day (there was no thought of them not attending school) and sometimes were caught out by air raids.  Her mother, our grandmother, told them to stand up against a wall if bombs were falling, as it would help to protect them from shrapnel.  

Once, Mum said, she and Raymond were on the way home when an air raid began.  They knocked on a neighbour's door and went in to find the family sheltering in the cupboard under the stairs, so they joined them.

Maybe it's wrong to draw parallels with the current Coronavirus situation, but I wonder how later generations would have coped with such threats to life?