It’s not Humanity’s First Plague

A wise history teacher once taught me that if you don’t know where you’ve been you wont know where you are going. Daniel Dafoe wrote a book about living through the plague in London in the 17th century. You know, it’s where the ring around the posy song comes.

Quantine. Laws governing closures. It’s all there except now they wrap people in body bags not rugs. We have ventilators (some) and masks. Even the ale houses had restrictions. But the more things change the more they stay the same. People didnt like to stay home then either and devised ways to sneak out if their plague infected home to go spread the germ, worsening and lengthening the crisis.

Sometimes they would send the watchman on an errand and the entire household would sneak away leaving the body of poor dead Aunt Eloise for the front line workers to dispose of. One end of London that wasn’t severely affected protested not being able to work and the laws restricting access and mobility. Meanwhile the other end had a big red line of paint on their door visited only by nurses and doctors.

If you would like a glimpse of the horror that the covid plague can turn into, read the book. Then I think you’d appreciate the efforts being made to save you. Surely one can survive on ramen noodles till the unemployment check comes in.

BBG

Originally published at http://ramblingswriter.com on April 24, 2020.