Have in artificial intelligence that goes through all of the history and video and pictures of polio, the Spanish flu, and different pandemics.
And then have them go through a bunch of diaries from that time..
And then when you ask questions have it preface it's answers with phrases like "Well, I remember it being like this" or "from what I saw it was like this".
They could make a lot more personal and make it seem a lot more real.