"A plague is a formidable enemy, and is armed with terrors that every man is not sufficiently fortified to resist or prepared to stand the shock against." So writes Daniel DeFoe in his novel, A Journal of the Plague Year. He goes on to write, "...such a time as this of 1665 is not to be paralleled in history."
It is tempting to state that we are going through an experience in 2020 that is "not to be paralleled in history." The simple fact is, however, that we've been here before - many, many times. One only has to read through DeFoe's historical novel to notice that almost everything that has occurred over the last six months has happened before. Let me explain.
DeFoe writes an account of the Great Plague of London in the year 1665. While A Journal of the Plague Year is a work of fiction, it is believed to have been based on the memoirs of DeFoe's uncle, Henry Foe. The book was originally published under the initials "H.F." who is the narrator. Regardless of whether fact or fiction, most historians have verified most of the events reported in the novel, and the work is often cited as one of the best and most accurate depictions of the plague that wreaked havoc in London that year.
Initially, towards the beginning of the epidemic, people were skeptical and refused to accept the reality of the coming infection. Once the number of cases started to increase significantly, however, skepticism gave way to panic. DeFoe writes, "When any one bought a joint of meat in the market they would not take it off the butcher's hand, but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other hand, the butcher would not touch the money, but have it put into a pot full of vinegar, which he kept for that purpose." During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were quick to downplay the severity of the illness (myself included), suggesting that influenza was far more deadly.
The plague affected the poor and downtrodden the most. In contrast, the wealthy citizens of London were able to "social distance" by leaving the city and moving to the countryside. Similarly, COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted those individuals in lower socioeconomic classes, both in terms of risk of actually getting the infection, having a more severe clinical course, and experiencing greater mortality.
Just as with the COVID-19 pandemic of today, people questioned the numbers of those who died from the plague in 1665. There were a number of cases in London in 1665 in which individuals who had the plague failed to show symptoms, thus contributing to the further spread of the disease. Again, we have experienced asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 in the year 2020.
Individuals in 1665 ignored recommendations from public health officials to quarantine or social distance - just as in 2020. Apparently, public officials hired "watchers" to stand guard by the doors of houses under quarantine, mostly to keep those in quarantine inside. DeFoe gives several accounts of individuals who would break quarantine by "sneaking out the back door."
Hopefully, by now, I have at least somewhat convinced you that many of the events described by DeFoe in his novel are happening today. Have we experienced more than just COVID-19 in 2020? Yes - it seems that every day we read about some other calamity in the newspaper. Guess what happened after the Great Plague of London - the very next year, the people of London experienced Great Fire of London.
There's hope in this story. Historians have speculated that the fire ended up saving lives in the long run by burning down some of the unsanitary, rat-infested buildings (note that the rats carried the fleas that transmitted the plague). The plague had killed off so much of the population, leaving far fewer workers to meet the demands posed by the need to rebuild the city after the fire. In other words, there was an incredible demand for workers, and employment conditions greatly improved. The London economy was saved and became the envy of the world.
We can only hope that we will emerge from 2020 stronger and more unified.
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