The Quarantine Begins
Flowers that have no idea we are quarantined.
It’s amazing to me that two weeks ago, everything was slightly different. The week before that, it was only very slightly different. We had been watching and waiting to hear how our country was going to handle a virus we had never seen. I thought back on other viruses that had traveled around but been quickly squashed. Most importantly, the Ebola outbreak of 2014, which killed more than 2000 people but was actually pretty quickly contained. Those of you who work in infectious disease, I thank you. You don’t often come up in conversation because you do such an excellent job of not making these things an issue in our day-to-day lives.
At this point, I think we all have questions. How did we let it get this bad? How many people will we know to get it? How will it affect our lives going forward? I recently read The Great Mortality : an intimate history of the black death, the most devastating plague of all time (Kelly), and Very, Very, Dreadful: The Influenza pandemic of 1918 (Marrin). They are both informative non-fiction books looking at two pandemics which hit hard.
When most people think plague, the bubonic black plague is what comes to mind. Imagine sanitation that looked like this: you needed to dump your chamber pot out. It’s cold, or hot outside. You go to the window. You look out. You shout: “Look out below!” three times. Then, dump away! Yes, really. That was the essence of sanitation code until not so very long ago. If you’re fantasizing about living in the time of Outlander, don’t forget that very real piece of urban city life. What I found most interesting was that the black plague popped up again as an epidemic (though much more treatable) in the mid-1980s in Afghanistan.Russian soldiers stationed there were apparently not ordered to change their underwear much, or wash hands, or sheets. So they didn’t- the average soldier changed once every 3 months. But it was handled fairly quickly and got under control again, as officers were informed they would have to order soldiers to practice good hygiene. It’s a good reminder to parents everywhere- we have to push these issues at home, so our kids will just keep themselves clean when they aren’t living with us.
Flu Pandemic of 1918: Stemming from soldiers as they returned from World War I, the first wave was considered a curiosity as it hit Fort Riley in Kansas. This, of course, would only be the first of three waves of flu that would in the end kill millions more than those who died in war. This flu strain would be contracted by roughly one-third of the population at the time (somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 million). There is not even a firm number as to how many people died from it. Coughing and sneezing in public would illicit a massive fine and jail time once it was deemed illegal. Jews and Italians were blamed for the being the source of the flu. Authorities attempted to limit human contact in order to limit the spread. Dance halls and other public venues were encouraged to close at the recommendation of the Surgeon General, but because no official order came, each community was expected to act on their own based on what their elected officials thought best. In New York City, public libraries, the NYSE, and private clubs were required to close their doors. But subways, churches, department stores and factories stayed open along with bars- because these workers needed relaxation time after working hours. Some towns closed their borders, similar to what happened during the Yellow Fever of 1793. People were recommended to eat onions, gargle daily, and stay home if they had a cold. Kids wanting to skip school only needed to inhale a little pepper in the morning- one sneeze would have them at home for the day. Do we talk about how comforting it is that children are the same?
Why would I pick up such light reading during this time? information really is power. Understanding how past pandemics have spread throughout the world helps us to understand how they might happen in the future. It also makes me feel better. We know to wash our hands and each day we are adding extra steps. For years, meaning my whole adult life, I have believed we were on top of things. How could we not be? We have so much technology. So much knowledge of how disease spreads, of what might be out there. My understanding was we had entire squads devoted to keeping an eye on developing diseases and squashing them. I could point to diseases- look at Sars! Avian Flu! Swine Flu! Ebola- hello, Ebola crisis- did NO ONE ELSE READ THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC??? It was terrifying- there was definitely a minute in which things could have taken a turn. But they didn’t.
For the most part, I had just been living in my bubble. Children, work, hiking, the gym, some travel. Planning more travel. Always planning more travel. It just didn’t occur to me that one day it would stop. Even when I heard murmurings of a virus that was hitting China, I naively assumed it wouldn’t affect me directly. Why would it? Yes, we don’t have the greatest healthcare system, but Europe is really solid, and the World Health Organization would be on top of it, right? It literally never occurred to me that it would not only fly into the United States, but then the person carrying it and all the other passengers would be allowed to disperse. Because that’s how you end up with an outbreak. That didn’t come from any book I read. Mainly it came from watching movies like I am Legend, World War Z, 28 days Later, and Zombieland. But you probably don’t want to watch anything like that right now. Watch Tiger King, and House Hunters International and Emma (please watch Emma. You can order it for a crazy high price from Amazon but if you have any affection for Jane Austen, tea, and love, it is WORTH it. Quarantine during the age of Covid-19. We have plenty of content to watch and read.
To recap, if you’ve made it this far:
- Rent Emma, or watch Tiger King with your Netflix subscription.
- Read a book- maybe choose something a little lighter than what I did. You can always contact me for reading suggestions.
- Don’t worry about reading The Great Mortality– just know that the Bubonic Plague was crazy bad and is still out there floating around. We just wash a little more now. A lot more now. Parents of teenagers, you can use this in your hygiene lessons.
- Check out (and identify) the flowers at the top of the page- they just came out this week!
- Biggest take-away? This, too, shall pass.
