re: For those of you old enough to remember, how does this situation compare to 9/11

Not the same.

9/11 affected us all, but we got up off the canvas quickly. I think I may have had 1 cancelled class at LSU throughout the initial week.

It also encouraged major socialization. We were excited to go out and greet one another. Fred's and other bars had no fights that following weekend that I recall. Lots of 20 year old children learned to speak and engage as adults that weekend. Solidarity.

This is different. The enemy is invisible. And no one is doing anything but staying and and going to work if they have to...or an occasional trip to the grocery. It may be bringing us together, but in a much different way.

The journalism of the two are night and day.

For the OP...they are 2 of the biggest 3 catastrophes I have ever lived through. But that's about the only commonality I see.

9/11 was a laceration that required stitches but got infected

CV - or more specifically the way it's being handled - severed a femoral artery and we're bleeding out - not from the virus itself but from shutting down the economy

If you’re talking raw “death toll”, sure... but 9/11 changed literally EVERYTHING about our way of life and the entire country was fearful and scared at every turn. It wasn’t like this “only essential workers (unless you don’t care enough)”... people were literally “scared”, young and old, to do anything.

And in the following days, you couldn’t travel, work, etc. The entire WORLD was just watching the news 24/7 for WEEKS.

Two entirely different things, both hugely impactful in different ways.

In junior year in the Central High School gym at career day and all of a sudden "did you hear the white house was bombed?" Is how it started..

Rumors spread so fast and the impact was shocking. We finished the day watching the rest of the events unfold in class. My dad got home from work that day with tears in his eyes, with brand new USA flags to raise at our house.

I'll never ever forget that feeling and the months that followed.

This is entirely different. A slow burn and every day seems like we are losing more and more hope, and shutting schools down is unheard of. Once they started cancelling major stuff like that it started to feel really odd.

Will never forget this either, and the uncertainty about the future and how we get back to work bothers me.

I really feel like we are in the start of an dystopian type movie

Not remotely similar. 911 was shocking, this ismore like a slow, drawn out drama.

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If just 115k die, that is twice the loss is life in Vietnam??? I don't think the country is emotionally and spiritually ready for that.

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Which 115k?

Literally, generations LOST to World Wars... The thousands upon thousands of young men lost in Korea/Vietnam... the thousands who were killed in one fell swoop in 9/11... the thousands killed in “combat” in Iraq/Afghanistan...

We’ve been through pandemics before (SARS, Ebola, etc) but 9/11 changed our outlook on life, the world, and our sense of safety forever.

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I'm sure it's enlightening, virtuous, and so brave. I'll pass.

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Just give it up dude. You made a dumb comment. Own it.

You called the worst terrorist attack in US history “a mess for a few months”. The phrase “Never Forget” was coined for exactly this reason - after 20 years someone calling 9/11 “a mess for a few months“

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9/11 was much bigger for me than this bc I was in the military at the time. A lot of things changed and changed quickly following that day. So far this coronavirus thing has just been a mild inconvenience (although that could change).

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I was also active duty at the time. 9/11 feels more like a 5-10 year era to me than the brief event that many are recalling. My life and the years that followed were affected drastically by that day.

That said, I was aware that the rest of the country had mostly returned to business as usual. This feels like an entirely different animal and the shock waves are likely to be far more visceral for not just Americans, but the entire world. I'm flabbergasted when I hear people say that we'll be back to 'normal'in a couple of months. I think that world's gone but I would love to be wrong.

We'll adapt and keep it moving though. It may not have happened in our lifetimes but humanity has been through many of these events, some far more lethal. The ability to be flexible is more important than ever though, because life is about to toss some curveballs.

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but 9/11 changed literally EVERYTHING about our way of life and the entire country was fearful and scared at every turn.

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Not to be disrespectful or argumentative, because I see your point and I do somewhat agree with it (enjoy an upvote) but I’m pretty sure things won’t be the same after this either. My coworker and I both said we won’t shake hands again. We will see I suppose, but I think restaurants, concerts, crowds, airports etc will all have a different look after this. I may be dead wrong, and I hope I am, because I miss not having to disrobe just to get on a damn plane. I miss buying a car without a Patriot Act check, I miss walking up and going inside government buildings without a hassle. I miss the Twin Towers. But I truly think it will be a different world, and yes I’m glued to the need about as much as I was on 9/11. Just not nearly as interesting nor as much as on 9/11.

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No, they weren't, not literally

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You’re better than this...

eta: this is the second time recently that I’ve said that to you