I'm old enough to remember the polio epidemics.
People, especially kids, were dying in large numbers.
They would quarantine infectious patients for a while, and close the neighborhood swimming pools; but life went on as normal.
My brother was paralyzed with polio, but he was lucky and he recovered thanks to some good family conducted therapy.
Back in '56 my Mom took me to Frisco to see her family. We went by train and had a five hour layover in Chicago. We had time to see the city and have a good meal, but we spent the entire time in the RR terminal because the city had been having a bad summer of polio outbreaks. Five hours for a seven year old was tough. I can imagine how tough it was on her. I have a feeling that this is what SARS will have in store for us.