Epidemics: then and now

 

Wolf Howling posted a piece a week or so ago at Bookworm Room that makes the case that the city of Charleston, SC handled the 1760 epidemic of small pox better than the United States has handled COVID-19.  The contrasts are remarkable:

. . . the final death toll in the city [pop. 8,000 in 1760) was merely 650 people from small pox and, by June, there was only one reported case of the disease in Charleston. Life was wholly back to normal.

That contrasts starkly with the course of Covid 19 epidemic. Our modern society has tried to use quarantine to cure the illness, rather than letting the disease run its course, especially among those not endangered by the disease. Instead of being done with Covid 19 in a matter of months, we are still wrestling with it well over a year on, and at tremendous cost to our nation, both economic and otherwise.

In 1760, the people of Charleston faced a deadly epidemic that they handled with grace and at minimal cost to society. In 2020-2021, our nation has faced a mild epidemic that it has handled with fear-mongering and government mandates. And unlike the Great Charleston Small Pox Epidemic that was over in approximately four months, our modern society is still dragging on – at great expense – our response to Covid 19. Will someone please explain to me how we have advanced in intelligence and common sense relative to our colonial forebears some 260 years ago?

The full article is here.

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