Controlling Contagion – Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid

This is an impressive study by a leading Oxford historian that brings a historical perspective to bear on contagions and epidemics – it is always salutary to remember the scale of devastation brought about by the Black Death to bring a sense of proportion into the present. The institutions in question are the market, state, community, religion, medical guilds, and family. The author argues that all six institutions played central roles in both transmitting contagion and controlling it – she characterises epidemics as perhaps the most serious externality that societies have to deal with, emphasising the positive role of a temperate state, an adaptable market, and a strong civil society. In my view, one notable feature of the recent pandemic that does not apply to previous episodes is the dangerous role of humans themselves in creating it via gain of function research – a medical own goal that should be banned forthwith. See my review of Bobby Kennedy’s book on the Wuhan cover-up in PE 144 p. 41 – at that time it was unthinkable that he could now be US secretary of health and human services.