Corona has to be thanked for two things. One, for not targeting children. If the corona were child-oriented, such as polio virus, also known as pediatric paralysis, the anxiety threshold would have been a miracle. The children would completely disappear from the streets and the harsh atmosphere of the poor would take over the public. Another reason to thank Corona is for not breaking out 30 years ago, for example, in 1991. Here's a reminder from those days:

In January 1991, the people of Israel were required to enter the sealed rooms. The days of the Gulf War and a great threat loom over the land: Will Saddam Hussein fulfill his threat and send missiles? "If All Wars" Saddam called the expected war, and no one knew whether to believe him. He talked about rockets with chemical warheads that added to the horror scenario, and civilians were distributed with ATM (Atomic-Biological) and Atropine syringes. Special kits have been fitted.

The Scud missiles of those days were clearly different from the rockets known to us. The length of each such missile as a four-story building. No wonder heavy fear filled the hearts. Concern increased as the threat became real, and one winter night in January landed on Israel, for the first time since its inception, the Scud missiles. The threat was realized.

The skeptics, the brave and the mocked were all called into the sealed rooms. In those days the commander, the apartment-protected space, had not yet been invented. The "sealed room" was only one room in the house whose windows were sealed with plastic tape. At any time the radio code words "Snake Viper" were all called into the sealed room. The bay.

And back to Corona. What were the media available in the atomic room in 1991? In the sealed room we had a button phone, which at the height of its glory was also wireless, one that could be removed from the bracket and moved in the room. We also had a radio or transistor in the sealed room that had a channel that united the Israel and GLC broadcasts. The Chopristists also had a television that broadcast on one channel, albeit a colorful one. If there was a personal computer (the big rectangular box of the time) and it happened to be in the room Atom, there was no communication between him and the outside world, in those days black diskettes and Einstein software ruled, nothing like or approaching Internet communication, which then made its first steps in the world.

Whenever people were required to enter the commander's office, they rushed to call one another. Check if and where Scud fell. Make sure everyone was fine. In no time, the centers would fall from the clutter. They huddled in front of the one and only television in the house, saw Nachman Shay and also heard It on the one-channel radio.

What would have happened if the Corona had fallen on us in 1991? What would we do in isolation without a computer? Without a mobile phone? Unable to send photos and videos in real time? No zoom software and no Wattsap? With totally one-dimensional communication and without Netflix?

Too bad we have to choose. But if you have to choose, then the Corona did well to wait until we could communicate remotely.

Prof. Dalia Gabrieli Nuri is a lecturer in the Department of Politics and Communication at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem