The Great Plague Of London 1665 and its similarities to current events.

I've been trying to teach my nine year old grandson during our extended periods at home together.
This has included learning about The Great Plague of London in 1665.

en.wikipedia.org...

The similarities in peoples reactions is really quite alarming.

Some people simply refused to accept there was a problem.
Many had an irrational need to identify a scapegoat and blamed anything and everyone without any supportive evidence at all.
Belief in it being 'God's retribution' was widespread.
The authorities of the day recommended lockdown protocols, and of course many people ignored these.
Its source was contested and theories on its origins were many and varied.
Conspiracy theories were rampant.

People were very, very scared and there was no cure at the time.

Apologies for adding to the avalanche of virus themed threads but......

a reply to: Freeborn

The village of Eyam did a pretty good isolation job. It's still known as the village of the damned because they lost an awful lot of people but it worked to stop the spread.

Lady on the radio the other day from the Plague Museum there.

Fascinating stuff.

The reaction to the Coronavirus has caused far worse issues than the actual effects from Coronavirus hands down.

a reply to: Freeborn

Corona virus is a hoax.

Nothing is gonna stop the New World Order this time.

a reply to: SocratesJohnson

Why punish the whole world for America's mistake?.....all seems very vindictive to me.
Would such an omniscient and omnipotent being concern 'himself' with such matters and if 'he' were capable of such spitefulness would 'he' be worthy of anyone's adoration and veneration?

Not saying Trump is good or bad.

starr but time to wake up

what is the other option in teotwawki

a reply to: Raggedyman

a reply to: Middleoftheroad

Care to elaborate?

Not really the point I was trying to make but I'd be interested nonetheless.

Unfortunately we'll never be able to quantify how many lives have been saved by the measures introduced but I personally suspect it'd run into the millions worldwide.
I think that's worth all our temporary discomfort and disruption to our lives.

I could be wrong.

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: Middleoftheroad

Care to elaborate?

Not really the point I was trying to make but I'd be interested nonetheless.

Unfortunately we'll never be able to quantify how many lives have been saved by the measures introduced but I personally suspect it'd run into the millions worldwide.
I think that's worth all our temporary discomfort and disruption to our lives.

I could be wrong.

That's a big assumption..

Before this is over (if it ever is), how many lives will have been lost because of the lockdown?

Got any stats on that?

a reply to: Freeborn

Or how many lives lost because of this overreaction to the whole situation,

How many elderly are abandoned and forgotten?

How many are already rotting alone?

a reply to: Raggedyman

For all that so much has changed in the 350 years since The Great Plague the fact remains that fundamentally we are still the same and that the human condition remains constant.
Despite the scientific and technological advances or the changes in religious attitudes our reactions to the unknown and the threatening stay the same; fear, the impulse to flee, ignorance and burying one's head in the proverbial sand, blind faith in dogma of one kind or another, irrational explanations and behaviour etc.

We are not as dissimilar from our ancestors as many would like or have us believe.

a reply to: Freeborn

I would say we are different, we (SNIP) our pants every time we catch a glimpse of the news.

And destroy everything the previous generations built, over nothing.

I look out the window, there are no piles of corpses, i see only bull(SNIP).

And a bunch of whiny little (SNIP).

a reply to: MykeNukem

Of course there will be statistics on those who will die alone.
Its heartbreaking and I can offer no words of comfort to those affected by such cases. My heart truly goes out to them.

But how many millions would have died if we had just gone about our daily business as normal?
The vast majority of 'experts' say it would run into the millions.
Yet still we get those eminently unqualified 'experts' who allege there is nothing to worry about....exactly as there were back in 1665 and I dare say many other epidemics that have occurred throughout human history.

There will never, ever be statistics an how many lives have been saved, just estimates.

a reply to: Freeborn

Frigging one person with a pre existing brain tumor would have died.

a reply to: Raggedyman

I'm not trying to cause an argument but ,just for balance, it was the Vicar of Eyam that realised what was happening and called the villagers to isolate.

a reply to: solve

There are no piles of rotting corpses because people by and large are following lockdown protocols.

Some things WERE different 350 years ago and we DO have more understanding of how these viruses etc are passed on.

There are no supermarkets with their social distancing measures, online deliveries etc.
Despite the strain hospitals and medical knowledge is far advanced.

But human reaction remains constant as is evidenced by the outright refusal to acknowledge the problem or the abundance of conspiracy theories etc.

There are numerous threads here on ATS discussing the details surrounding COVID-19, this thread was intended to be a little different and was about the similarities between this and previous pandemics and the constant nature of the human reaction to them.

Oh, and the last thing anyone could ever call me is a 'whiny little' anything!

a reply to: solve

Frigging one person with a pre existing brain tumor would have died.

What on earth is that supposed to mean?
What point are you trying to make?

a reply to: Freeborn
Recommend book...
Journal of the Plague Year
By Daniel Defoe

He wrote it in the 1720's or thereabout so it's in the public domain and quite cheep.
There's also some inexpensive works about the Spanish flue in 1918 which were recently published to play on the hundredth anniversary.

If want a great work about all the world wide plagues, Plagues and Peoples by Mcneil.

I'm doing this from memory, so I think I've done an OK job on the titles and spelling, but I may have some wrong.

a reply to: Freeborn

Unfortunately we can not see how many lives are spared by these measurement and unfortunately we will never estimate how much lives will be lost and ruined by these measurements.

The believe that it is worth to save a few now without considering the consequences for the next generations is a dangerous path but perfectly in sync with the attitude of humanity of solving symptoms of the now with lacking a future plan.