Plague Doctors and Pandemics

As I'm coming off my second time with COVID-19, I was thinking about pandemics throughout history. Pandemics, epidemics and plagues have been around since at least 1350 BC (the plague of Megiddo, unknown number of casualties). And while COVID-19 has certainly ravaged the world as we know it and changed how we live (probably forever), it's hard to imagine how those who came before us must have felt in the face of even greater suffering and devastation.

I have to be honest, plague doctors fascinate me. I love the whole creepy mask thing they had going on. But they were often far from being any kind of  healer (and most were nothing more than snake oil salesmen making money off fear). They offered no cures for the sick and essentially became death trackers, compiling records of the dead. What I wonder most is how many plague doctors died? The only count I've come across was from Venice, where 18 plague doctors were hired. In 1348, only one was left. 5 died and 12 fled. Despite being unscrupulous characters in history, their image has become iconic, especially in the genre of steampunk. 

But getting back to pandemics...an estimated 75-200 million lives were lost to the Black Death (1346-1353), 17-100 million to the Spanish Flu (1918-1920), and the list goes on. Read the Wikipedia on this subject and it's terrifying just how many illnesses have devastated the world many times over. The sheer magnitude of these events is mind blowing. We live in a time were many will see one, maybe two, such catastrophic events in their lifetime. But look at the 16th-19th centuries and it seems like the list is never ending....one after another emerging and decimating vast populations (large and small) around the world. Our ancestors had to cope as best as they could. Isolation (if they were lucky enough not to live in a city) was likely the best hope of survival. For those who lived in crowded and unsanitary conditions, the outcome was certainly grim. I can only imagine the horror of being surrounded by the dead and dying in such horrifically dismal conditions.

Imagine when there was no social media, no internet, no tv, no radio, and few printed/written materials. Word of mouth depended on someone living long enough to pass information along to the next person. We're fortunate to live in a time when we benefit from advancements in medicine. Ongoing research, vaccines and the simple ability to communicate quickly to the masses are all critical to stemming the death toll. But just like our ancestors, we would all be wise to understand nature is still stronger and smarter than us. We will always be at least a step behind. Viruses, bacteria and the smallest living organisms will continue to morph and evolve and new threats will always be on the horizon. The most we can hope for is to learn from the past, and keep our eyes on the future.

Image by Sabrina Belle from Pixabay