In the Middle Ages, it was common to douse oneself in “four thieves vinegar”
– a concoction of herbs brewed in cider vinegar – before leaving the house
as a way of staving off the plague.
Legend has it that a group of grave robbers invented it to keep them safe.
Eventually they were arrested
but the authorities agreed to let them go in exchange for their secret recipe.
In 16th-Century Sardinia, things were a bit more sophisticated.
The doctor Quinto Tiberio Angelerio devised an ingenious method of social distancing
in which “any person going out from home must carry a cane six spans long
and as long as the cane is, one must not approach other people”.
In his spookily prescient manual on the sanitary measures to be taken
during an outbreak in the city of Alghero he also recommended only
one person per household venture out to do the shopping
and urged his readers to be careful when shaking hands.
Other precautions adopted by our ancestors include toad-vomit lozenges
developed by none other than the celebrated physicist Sir Isaac Newton : during the Black Death
In the 1940s, women would routinely have all their teeth removed
just in case they ever went septic.
The preventative was so popular, it was often paid for as part of a wedding gift
or for their 18th birthday. (Happy birthday, you now need dentures!)
In 1793, the US government simply evacuated entire sections of Philadelphia
– the then-capital – to protect residents from a yellow fever outbreak.
An estimated 20,000 people left the city over the course of a month
which amounted to half its population at the time.
In 2020, cracks began to appear in this previously universal thinking.
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, it was reported some people were considering
the – deeply risky and highly dubious– strategy of catching Covid-19 on purpose
as a way to fast-track their route back to normal life.
Even centuries before we knew about microorganisms, antibodies or vaccination
people had a pretty good idea that being infected was something to avoid at all costs.
The terms “immunity passport” and “herd immunity”
became part of the mainstream lexicon
and low antibody counts in the population were framed as a “blow” rather than a success.
Herd immunity can come at a steep price.
Catching any pathogen is a gamble – especially one that’s new to humankind.
Sometimes, the cost of an infection doesn’t show up for months or years afterwards;
HPV can take years to lead to cervical cancer,
while HSV-1 has recently been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
ketchim therefore recommends while awaiting your Jab :
MASK UP !
Mapoui post Conspiracy theory LINKS:
criticising Lockdowns : but little do they know about the History ~
Be careful Folks, of those fake and dangerous LINKS