If you could choose between a virus with an overall infection fatality rate of 1% but 1) uniformly distributed across age groups, 2) more deadly to the old and less deadly to the young or 3) more deadly to the young and less deadly to the old, what would you prefer?
I went with "worse for old" but if it's a permanent feature of life I can see a world where a disease that gets maybe 5% of kids in their first year and does nothing else would be less socially disruptive / harmful - humans have lived with high childhood mortality before