A History of Pandemics

As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as COVID-19 has.

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Hope you find the stuff in here educational and interesting!

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Pandemic History

 

From the Antonine plague to COVID-19, many infectious diseases have claimed millions of lives across the globe in the history of humankind. What have we learnt from the long list of pandemics?

Little did we know that a pandemic was around the corner when a few cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were reported from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. But here we are, four months hence, with about a million people from 227 countries infected and over 80,000 dead. Although many countries have dealt with endemics restricted to a certain geographical area and epidemics that spread to a slightly larger area, a pandemic of this proportion is an unprecedented one for us. But this is not the only pandemic that has shaken the world with the enormity of its infection and death.

Don't think it's over when Covid moves on - there's another waiting in the wings.

The quicker we get off this planet the better. Head for Mars folks!!!!

 

It's still too early to know how profoundly coronavirus will change our societies, but it's clear we'll be living with the shockwaves for years to come.

This pandemic will alter the course of history in ways we can't predict — just like those before it.

Along with wars, economic changes and technological developments, outbreaks of infectious disease have radically shaped the world we live in today.

(Taken from the ABC: This is what we pay them for.)

Take for instance the French Revolution of 1848 and its links to outbreaks of disease. Will there be uprisings in Australia? How will it all end? I don’t know, but hang on to your hats, it’s going to be a rough ride.

 

A vintage colour illustration showing French citizens burning Royal carriages during the French Revolution of 1848.

Getty: Keith Lance

Eyam plague: The village of the damned

On 1 November 1666 farm worker Abraham Morten gasped his final breath - the last of 260 people to die from bubonic plague in the remote Derbyshire village of Eyam. Their fate had been sealed four months earlier when the entire village made the remarkable decision to quarantine itself in an heroic attempt to halt the spread of the Great Plague. This is the story of the villagers who refused to run.

Read the story at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35064071

Excellent Farside, a great story. I see a lot of similarities between the rector William Mompesson and our long suffering Dan Andrews. Unpopular with the villagers yet he went ahead and did what he felt was right.

"Services were held in the open air at Cucklet Delf and families stood apart from each other to avoid the spread of infection" - brilliant forward thinking and even the transparency of posting notices on doors telling the villagers how the sick died, now that is something we should see more of during Covid.

I feel we need to know more about the volunteer who fell ill after having the Oxford trial vaccine. All we know is that it was a female volunteer, we need to have more details.

 

 

 

 

 

Just came across this amazing story Lucca....

When Devajammani arrived at the royal court of Mysore in 1805, it was to marry Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. They were both 12 years of age and he was the newly minted ruler of the southern Indian kingdom.

But Devajammani soon found herself recruited for a more momentous cause - to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine. And her unwitting role was captured in a painting commissioned by the East India Company to "encourage participation in the vaccination programme", according to Dr Nigel Chancellor, a historian at Cambridge University.

The cure for smallpox was fairly new - it had been discovered just six years before by Edward Jenner, an English doctor - and met with suspicion and resistance in India. Not least because it was being championed by the British, whose power was rising at the turn of the 19th Century.

But the British would not give up on their grand scheme to inoculate Indians - they justified the cost and effort of saving "numerous lives, which have yearly fallen a sacrifice" to the virus with the promise of "increased resources derived from abundant population".

What followed was a deft mix of politics, power and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world's first ever vaccine to India, their biggest colonial enterprise. It involved British surgeons, Indian vaccinators, scheming company bosses and friendly royals - none more so than the Wadiyars, indebted to the British who had put them back on the throne after more than 30 years of exile.

Dr Chancellor believes this painting, dated to around 1805, is not just a record of the queen's vaccination but also a window into how the British effort unfolded.

The portrait, an arresting rendition in oil on canvas, was last offered for sale via Sotheby's auction house in 2007. Its subjects were unknown - and thought to be dancing girls or courtesans - until Dr Chancellor stumbled upon it. He says he "immediately felt this was wrong".

The Indian queens who modelled for a vaccine

He identified the woman on the right in the painting as Devajammani, the younger queen. He said her sari would have typically covered her left arm, but it was left exposed so she could point to where she had been vaccinated "with a minimum loss of dignity".

The woman on the left, he believes, is the king's first wife, also named Devajammani. The marked discoloration under her nose and around her mouth is consistent with controlled exposure to the smallpox virus, Dr Chancellor said. Pustules from patients who had recovered would be extracted, ground to dust and blown up the nose of those who had not had the disease. It was a form of inoculation known as variolation, that was meant to induce a milder infection.

More on this fascinating story can be read here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53944723?at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom3=BBC+News&at_medium=custom7&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_custom4=0

 

Wow Sophie, just read that incredible article. Thanks a lot for that and much appreciated!

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